Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has now found himself in some legal hot water. The former star of Showtime's The Tudors was arrested recently for driving under the influence, and this comes after a long line of issues with substance abuse for Rhys Meyers.
According to Yahoo Entertainment, Jonathan Rhys Meyers was in a minor single car crash in Malibu, California on Sunday, which occurred at about 5 p.m. PST. When police officers got to the scene of the crash, they gave Rhys Meyers a field sobriety test, but, unfortunately the 43-year-old actor failed that test and was arrested for a misdemeanor DUI. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said that he's since been released from custody.
Aside from his starring role as England's King Henry VIII on The Tudors, which lasted for four seasons from 2007 through 2010, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is also known for his work in movies such as Bend It Like Beckham, Match Point, Mission: Impossible III, and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, as well as more recent appearances on TV in the 2016 Roots mini-series and the hit History Channel drama, Vikings.
As mentioned earlier, Rhys Meyers has had a long history with alcohol abuse, and has spoken openly about his time in rehab, where he began seeking treatment for his substance abuse issues over 13 years ago, with him once needing treatment at three separate such facilities in just one year. Unfortunately, he's also had other arrests and public troubles come about because of his problems.
In 2009, Rhys Meyers had became drunk enough while at a bar in Charles de Gaulle airport in France that bar staff refused to serve him any more. When he was told that he was being cut off, apparently, he got into an argument with the staff, which led to a physical altercation and him issuing death threats. He was arrested, and detained for several hours. Eventually, according to WNBC in New York, he was given a one-month suspended sentence and a fine of approximately $1,350 in a French court.
Just the next year, Jonathan Rhys Meyers was at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City, when he became "belligerent" and "disruptive" after getting drunk. That incident led to him being banned from United Airlines for life. The summer of 2018 saw him detained at Los Angeles International Airport after getting into a “verbal altercation” with his wife during a flight, when they had been headed home after getting holistic treatment for anger management issues.
We don't know yet what kind of sentence Jonathan Rhys Meyers might receive because of his DUI, but it's clear that he has a lot to continue to work through, and we wish him all the best. He has several projects in the works, so here's hoping that he can come through this before too much longer. If you want to revisit The Tudors, you can stream it on Netflix or Hulu.
