Jonathan Rhys Meyers has personally spoken out for the first time about his airport altercation which took place earlier this month.
At the time TMZ reported that the Irish actor exchanged heated words with his wife during a flight from Miami to LA over the use a vape.
The star has battled with alcohol addiction and revealed he broke his sobriety during a stressful journey.
“My wife and I had been travelling 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.
“We had our baby, who was teething at the time, and it was all kind of frustrating,” he told Larry King.
Jonathan admitted that he regrets deciding to order a drink as it ‘doesn’t suit him’.
“So we eventually got on the flight and my wife went to sleep and I very stupidly decided to order a drink. When my wife found that I’d ordered a drink, she got very, very angry with me because I shouldn’t drink. It doesn’t suit me and I had been sober for a long time.”
“And so I felt that mistake and I got upset and I took out an e-cigarette. And the airline staff told me that I wasn’t allowed to smoke an e-cigarette so I put it away.
“Then I spoke to the Los Angeles police once we got there, who were incredibly kind. Incredibly understanding. I apologised for my behaviour, and that’s the entire story.”
“I’m trying my best to not smoke, I’m a father to a young boy and eventually he’s going to turn around and say ‘Daddy what’s that in your hand’, so I do my best to stop.”
The Tudors actor revealed that he regretted his actions and that he learned from it.
“It is a good opportunity to apologise to anybody who was offended that that incident happened, but I learned my lesson.
“As soon as I got off the aeroplane I went and spoke to somebody and I got back on track immediately.”
The star also praised the police at LAX for their kind manner in dealing with a difficult situation.
“They just wanted to have a conversation, they were so kind and so friendly and you hear things about the police but I couldn’t have met nicer kinder more understanding gentleman.”
At the time, Jonathan’s wife Mara Lane took to Instagram to apologise for the incident.
“8 months of sobriety and an unfortunate day of airline travel. We were in South America specifically working holistically through anger issues that result in these kinds of episodes,” she said on social media.
“When in it… he is not in a frame of mind where he can really even comprehend the repercussions and necessary response to his own actions.
“J IS extremely sorry for any inconveniences caused to anyone travelling yesterday. There was no argument, just me asking him to not use his e cig per stewardess’ request to me and him not being himself, speaking very very unkindly.”
She continued: “It was out of his character. It was unbeknownst to me anything that happened on the flight, as I was with my son with a privacy wall up. We are home safe and he is feeling deeply sorry for any remote disrespect afforded to me, attendants, onlookers or officers.
“Thank you for your compassion on this ongoing battle with addiction we are in.”
