TMZ reports that Gerard Butler checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic three weeks ago. According to a source Butler relied too heavily on perscription medication after suffering an injury on the set of 300 and more recently in a surf boarding accident while filming “Of Men and Mavericks” on December 18th.
Sources also tell TMZ that the actor also has a problem with cocaine but that’s apparently an issue they’re not focusing on right now.
A while back Butler admitted that he quit drinking years ago because he didn’t like the way it made him act stating, “It’s been years now and it’s like it never happened. I can’t remember drinking. When I stopped I would look at a beer and think how great it would be,” he explained. “I’d get this pang in my stomach to go out and have fun, but then I remember I used up that right – that I did a full life worth of drinking between 14 and 27. That I’d done enough drinking for half a dozen people. Now I have no connection with it. I’m not afraid of it and I don’t celebrate it.”
On the Graham Norton show in January the actor retold the story humorously saying, “I’m with three of the best surfers in the world, and they’re just going, ‘Paddle, Gerry! Paddle!’” Butler said of the wave that took him under. “They came out of nowhere and were topping out at nearly 30 feet high. Anyone who’s been in the ocean can attest to the random huge waves that seem to come from nowhere, and vanish just as quickly. Sometimes you’re only under for 10 to 15 seconds, but you feel like you’re under for two minutes,” he said. “But this I was under for almost a minute.”
No word on when Gerard Butler plans to leave the clinic or if he’s fully healed of his struggle.
