Jonathan Rhys Meyers arrested for DUI amid long struggle with alcohol

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been arrested for driving under the influence.

The Irish actor, 43, was in a minor single-car crash in Malibu, Calif., on Sunday at about 5 p.m. PT, Yahoo Entertainment can confirm. Officers on the scene administered a field sobriety test, which he failed, and the actor was arrested for misdemeanor DUI.

He has since been released from custody, a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department spokesperson says.

Rhys Meyers — known for roles in The Tudors, Mission: Impossible III, Match Point and the title role in 2005’s Elvis — has long struggled with alcohol. He has been candid about spending time in rehab, beginning more than 13 years ago, and once going to three facilities in one year. In 2009, he was arrested during a drunken incident at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The following year, he was was banned for life from United Airlines after being “belligerent” while intoxicated at NYC’s John F. Kennedy Airport. In 2018, he was detained again at Los Angeles International Airport for a mid-flight “verbal altercation” with his wife, Mara Lane, as they traveled home from him getting holistic treatment for anger issues.

Lane, also an actor, thanked fans for their “compassion on this ongoing battle with addiction we are in” at the time of the 2018 incident. This time, she’s filling her timeline with positive stories about her husband, whom she married in 2016 “‘since so many of our lowlights seem to find their way on the web” — and also so that their 3-year-old son, Wolf, doesn’t just find negative stories about his dad when he googles him one day.

Lane shared a video of Rhys Meyers doing yoga, saying he’s been doing it twice a week at Malibu Pacific Church and wrote about the importance to breathe “through the good and bad times.”

In the comments, she added, “To any out there struggling with addictions or mental health issues without in person meetings,” which has been a major issue during the pandemic, “stay strong and healthy and if not feeling so, ask a loved one for help. J has been playing soccer twice a week and we just recently started going to outdoor yoga.”

In another post, she solicited “good news” — and shared that Wolf learned how to swim over the summer, along with a video of the star swimming with his son.

“Thank you God for the happy times,” Lane wrote, adding, “Any recent milestones over there for you? Wolf and I want to hear some good news please.”

And along with another photo of Rhys Meyers in the pool with his son, she wrote, “More happy highlights. I feel since so many of our lowlights seem to find their way on the web, fair to share some happy moments so when Wolf is older, he can search/find/see/remember the happies.”

She ended by writing, “Each day is a gift. Tomorrow a new day. Count your many blessings, hold yourself accountable and grow, heal, recover in a way that works for you, thank God, angels, loved ones and carry on.”

Rhys Meyers has spoken openly about his struggles. In an interview with Event magazine in 2018, he said, “I’ve been to a lot of rehab centers in my life... I went to three in one year and I talked to my therapist. I would be known as somebody who relapses with problem drinking, not alcoholism. I don’t suffer from alcoholism – I suffer from an allergy to alcohol every time I drink it. But once I stop, I never think about it again.”

He continued, “That doesn’t mean that the problem is any less, it just means I have a different version of it. But when I drink, the consequences are so devastating that it is a problem. But I never need a drink. It’s not something that I crave.”

He explained that airport trouble can be challenging to him, saying, “People who go through this, they look for things in their life that trigger them. And airports are a trigger for me, because they make you sit there for three hours, you can’t smoke and you’re surrounded by alcohol. That is not an excuse however... There’s never an excuse for me to drink. But sometimes there are triggers that make you more vulnerable.”

That same year, he spoke about the incident at LAX, admitting he broke eight months of sobriety.

“My wife and I had been traveling since 3 o’clock in the morning from Peru back to Los Angeles. And they gave away our tickets — it was just a problem with the airline,” he said. “We had our baby, who was teething at the time, and it was all kind of frustrating. We eventually got on the flight and my wife went to sleep and I very stupidly decided to order a drink.”

When Lane awoke, she was “very, very angry with me because I shouldn't drink.” He said he “learned [a] lesson” from the incident and, “As soon as I got off the airplane I went and spoke to somebody and I got back on track immediately.”

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