Jonathan Rhys Meyers detained at LAX after 'verbal altercation' with wife on flight: Here's what she has to say.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers was detained by police at LAX on Sunday after causing a disruption on his flight from Miami to Los Angeles. His wife, Mara Lane, is speaking out about the “unfortunate” incident and her husband’s relapse after eight months of sobriety.
Rob Pedregon, an airport police public information officer, confirms to Yahoo Entertainment that police responded around 8 p.m. after receiving “a notification from American Airlines flight crew that they were having a disturbance on board.” The Match Point star got into a “verbal altercation” with his wife on the cross-country flight. TMZ, which first reported the news, claims Rhys Meyers’s tirade was laced with profanities and upset other passengers. The couple was traveling with their 1-year-old son, Wolf.
Following the heated disagreement, Rhys Meyers stood up and “pulled an [e-cigarette] from his pocket.” Pedregon tells Yahoo it’s unclear if he took a puff or was about to when a flight attendant stopped the actor, saying it was a federal violation.
“He complied and put the pen away,” Pedregon says. The actor was “clearly aggravated,” but “no physical altercation” took place at any point during the flight.
Police at LAX notified the FBI as standard policy requires, and officers were waiting at the gate when the plane landed. Rhys Meyers was detained, and his wife was questioned about the incident, who gave a statement. Ultimately, “the investigation revealed there was no real crime that was committed.”
“Officers admonished [Rhys Meyers] for the pen, released him, and they were free to go,” Pedregon concludes.
Lane addressed the event on Instagram, saying “there was no argument” but that she was telling her husband to put his e-cigarette away. She said Rhys Meyers is “deeply sorry” and thanks everyone for their “compassion on this ongoing battle with addiction we are in.”
A post shared by Mara Lane 🕊🙏🏻✨❤️🐾👑🎬✌🏻️ (@maralanerhysmeyers) on Jul 9, 2018 at 11:18am PDT
Rhys Meyers, who has been in and out of rehab, has a long history with incidents while trying to fly the friendly skies.
In 2008, he was arrested for public drunkenness at the Dublin airport. The following year, he allegedly assaulted a French airport lounge employee while drunk. In 2011, Rhys Meyers was sued by an airline worker who alleged the Tudors star assaulted, battered, and verbally abused her after being forbidden from boarding a flight for being too intoxicated.
Rhys Meyers and Lane have been married since 2016. Last year, she opened up about suffering a miscarriage while carrying baby No. 2 in a heartbreaking post on Instagram. She revealed the actor took the news especially hard, which caused him to relapse.
“Depression is a real concern from past abuse as well as alcoholism, which he was born with. He has been able to turn any ugliness and hurt in his life into art and is the strongest person I know. I do not know anyone who has been through what he has been through and reached his level of successes. It does seem though that every time we seem to be making so much progress … sometimes it’s like two steps forward, one step back,” she wrote. “Life is life. Life is beautiful. Life is tough sometimes though, so let’s try not looking down at someone unless we intend on helping them up.”
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