John Stamos is opening up more about his 2015 DUI and how reaching his rock bottom pushed him to finally get sober. The Full House actor, 60, told PEOPLE in a new interview that the immediate aftermath of his DUI was a dark time for him, as he came home from the hospital that night and “drank a bottle of wine” to forget what had happened.
Despite his legal situation, Stamos had to immediately fly to Canada to film My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, but he kept drinking to quiet the chaos of the mess he was in. “When you sober up, you have to look at the ugly truth, so you keep drinking,” he admitted. “So I was kind of just loosely buzzed through the shooting of that movie.”
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Stamos previously detailed going “off the rails” in 2015 in his memoir If You Would Have Told Me, sharing his memories of his DUI. “Something I took or drank earlier kicks in when I pass the iconic Beverly Hills sign. These one-way streets are confusing enough when you’re stone-cold sober, but if you’re loaded, they become a maze of mayhem,” he wrote.
The Big Shot actor continued that he thought about dying while he was driving. “I don’t want to kill myself, but there’s a selfishness in death that I flirt with. I’m faded in my car. It’s okay if I die. Fine. I’ve done it all; crossed everything off my list. Got the fame, got the girls, got the sitcom, got to play with The Beach Boys. The end. I’m good to go, in the literal sense,” he wrote in his memoir. Eventually, police found Stamos pulled over in his car “blacked out, slumped in my seat like a scarecrow,” and he was rushed to the hospital.
“I’ve seen the TMZ video and pictures from that night. It makes me sick to my stomach. I’m spinning around the streets, out of my f—ing mind. I could have killed a kid, wiped out a family or a grandmother coming home from Bible study,” he wrote. “I’m jeopardizing everything in my life: my career, reputation, and worst of all, the kid my parents raised, a guy I kind of like.”
Earlier this month, the Fuller House star recalled the dark time during an interview on Mayim Bialik’s podcast Bialik Breakdown. “I hated it. I really hated the way I felt, hated disappointing people, hated myself, hated looking in the mirror going, ‘This is not who my parents raised. What am I doing? Who is this idiot?’ I would be so embarrassed,” he told The Big Bang Theory alum. “I had everything growing up. I had a beautiful childhood. I had no excuse to f- my life up. And I did and it made me sick.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, please call the National Drug Helpline at (844) 289-0879.
