Jonathan Rhys Meyers Charged With DUI After Recent Arrest

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is reportedly facing two criminal charges stemming from his DUI arrest in November. The Vikings actor has been charged with one count of driving under the influence of alcohol and one count of driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more, according to Us Weekly. Meyers is due in court on Feb. 25, 2021.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting Meyers over his solo car crash on Sunday, Nov. 8, when he failed a field sobriety test. The case was reportedly filed on Wednesday, Dec. 30. At the time of the crash, Meyers was arrested without injuries, held overnight, and released on $5,000 bail. The actor has a personal history with alcoholism long preceding this case.

Meyers was reportedly alone in his car when he got into a minor collision in Malibu, California. The actor escaped the crash unscathed, though details are sparse. However, fans know that the 43-year-old actor has battled with addiction throughout the years, often being publicly vulnerable with his journey.

Meyers first sought help for alcoholism in 2007, following a slew of back-to-back projects. Around this time he played Declan in Mission: Impossible III, Louis Connelly in August Rush and George Hogg in The Children of Huang Shi, among other roles.

Meyers went back into rehabilitation again in 2010, after making a scene at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where he drunkenly used the N-word against staff and security there. The incident took place at 7 a.m.

In 2018, Meyers gave an interview with Larry King, saying that he had relapsed again earlier that year. However, he said that beforehand he had been sober “for a long time,” and intended to stay sober going forward. He may have been referring to a relapse in September of 2017, when his wife, Mara Lane, made a vulnerable post about her miscarriage.

“Depression is a real concern from past abuse as well as alcoholism which he was born with. He has been able to turn any ugliness and hurt in his life into art and is the strongest person I know,” she wrote about Meyers. “I do not know anyone who has been through what he has been through and reached his level of successes. It does seem though that every time we seem to be making so much progress… sometimes it’s like two steps forward, one step back.”

“My husband is an Irishman who battles alcoholism and depression and drank between jobs to try to cope with the sadness of this news,” she went on. “I am trying to and still learning/adjusting to living with the public, like one would as a concerned mother-in-law. I feel that whomever took photos of my husband was slightly in the wrong and was concerned for the wrong reasons but… it’s OK. It’s OK. Maybe you have/had a family to feed and need/needed money? I don’t know. We forgive you.”