02 December 2023 , 16:27
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Steve-O has spoken about living with a sex addiction diagnosis - and the extreme action he took to battle his life-ruining lusty urges.
The 49-year-old, who shot to fame in the 2000s as one of the thrill seeking amateur stuntmen on Jackass, was reflecting on his life on the StyleLikeU and Man Enough's podcast, What’s Underneath: Masculinity. On the show, he reflected how he knew from a young age that he wasn't cut out for a normal job, instead training with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.
After sending videos of himself performing tricks to different casting directors he was asked to join the Jackass troupe. The MTV show was a global phenomenon, with the stars - Steve, Johnny Knoxville, Bam Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn and Wee Man - living a glitzy showbiz live of excess.
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Steve-O has opened up about being a sex addict (Threads/@steveo)
Steve-O pictured in July 2011 during a comedy stand-up show in London (Getty Images)Steve-O admits that his fame rose in line with his drug and alcohol use, and in 2008, he lost his home after he pled guilty to charges of possessing cocaine. From here his life began to seriously unravel, and he recalls sending an email to everyone he knows telling them that he was “ready to die”.
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His Jackass colleagues “staged an intervention” and he was placed under an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric hold. This marked the start of his sobriety, but his addictions found new ways to manifest. Steve-O told the podcast that after becoming clean and sober, he began to treat women “terribly”, which left him floundering in an “endless cycle of shame”.
He said: “Once I had a foundation of sobriety, I found myself really acting out sexually a lot. I started touring the comedy clubs, I would do this meet and greet after the show that was like a glorified audition to find a partner to act out with that night.
“I developed this pattern where I would meet a woman and become infatuated with her ... and pour on the charm. Once she fell for me, then like a light switch, I would lose interest in her. I would just ghost. I would feel so terrible about myself after doing that because not only was I not treating them the way I want to be treated, I was actually treating them specifically the way I most feared myself being treated. It was just like, using people and throwing them away. I knew exactly what a piece of s**t I was. It was an endless cycle of shame.”
Steve O and Johnny Knoxville pictured at the premiere of Jackass 3D in October 2010 (Getty Images)Steve-O reached a point where he “just couldn't act out anymore…[so I] started seeing a sex therapist” who recommended that he start “an outpatient sex addict rehab” program.
He added: “I had some starts and stops and some stumbles, but ultimately, when I got out of that sex addict rehab, they recommended a period or celibacy between like 30 and 90 days. And I ended up going 431 days. I felt strongly that my mission was to become the man that the love of my life deserves.”
With a new clarity about relationships, Steve-O realised that it was vital that he needed to find a stable, long-term relationship. In 2016 he began dating a stylist named Lux Wright, who he has been happily loved-up with ever since.
He said: “I met her on a job, we went on a bunch of dates and we didn't even kiss for over a month. I was fully transparent and explained to her that I was coming in with a terrible track record for relationships. But we did everything correctly. We've been together for approaching seven years now, and I never once doubted for a second that I wanted to be with her.”
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