Actor Jason Ritter got real about his alcoholism nearly costing him his relationship with his now wife, Melanie Lynskey, at the beginning of their nearly decade-long romance. While recalling their early interactions on the March 29 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Jason, 43, admitted their love story is “not as cute of a story” as people would expect due to his struggles with alcohol abuse at the time. “At a point, I knew how amazing she was and I thought she would be incredible for someone who deserved her, basically,” the Parenthood alum confessed to Drew Barrymore. “And I didn’t feel like I was that person. I felt a little bit too crazy.”
“It was only after maybe a year into not drinking where I started to go, ‘Oh, maybe I can promise some things to someone else. Maybe I can be this person,’” he continued, as Melanie, 45, held his hand. “So I knew that she was incredible. It was working on myself enough to feel like maybe I could be ‘The One’ for her too.”
Melanie, an actress from New Zealand, teared up as she shared how proud she is of her husband’s diligence and willpower. “He worked so hard,” she said, wiping tears away from her eyes. “He did so much work on himself, I’m so proud of him.”
The Candy star later expressed that she stood by Jason’s side amid his struggles with sobriety because she knew how good of a heart he has. “This is, first of all, the best person in the world. I just knew it. Even though mistakes were made along the way, you had such a good heart and also, he was always so willing … to take responsibility,” she gushed. “We just kept growing, I think, is the thing.” They truly are couple goals.
Jason and Melanie, who have been together since 2013, got engaged in 2017 and welcomed a daughter in Dec. 2018. They decide to get hitched when the Heavenly Creatures actress was told Jason wouldn’t be allowed to enter Canada — where she was preparing to film Yellowjackets — unless they were married. “We got married on our front porch of our little rental house in Atlanta. A nice lady came and married us,” Melanie confessed in May 2022 while appearing on The Jess Cagle Show.
Jason wasn’t the only one to open up about a struggle with alcoholism on The Drew Barrymore Show. Drew, 48, assured the couple she was happy to speak about the topic due to her past addiction issues. “I haven’t had a drink in almost four years,” she proudly stated. “The narrative that one creates is that, ‘I can’t be with someone.’ And I haven’t been in a relationship since I stopped drinking, and I’m really looking forward to one day not having that bad girl narrative, the instability, the ‘I’m not someone who’s right to be with anyone for their sake’.”
Several other stars have spoken about their sobriety journeys recently. Katy Perry revealed she’s been sober for five weeks at a curated cocktail event in New York City on Monday night, March 27. “I’ve been sober for five weeks today,” she said at the event. “I’ve been doing a pact with my [fiancé Orlando Bloom] and I want to quit.” Earlier in March, model Bella Hadid revealed on TikTok that she was five months sober as she enjoyed a trip to Las Vegas with friends.