Lady A's Charles Kelley Was 'Crushed' When Wife Cassie Told Him Son, 7, 'Was Noticing' His Drinking
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Charles Kelley told CBS Mornings that his journey to sobriety started as he realized he was at risk of losing his family
Lady A's Charles Kelley is opening up about how his alcoholism affected his family.
In a sitdown with CBS Mornings, the 41-year-old country star and wife Cassie called alcoholism a "family disease" as the singer recalled his wife telling him 7-year-old son Ward was noticing the changes in his dad.
"Cassie would tell me some stories about how little things that Ward would say that I didn't even know he was noticing," he recalled. "You know, 'Daddy's talking a little funny,' or, 'You and Daddy argue a lot.'"
Kelley said he was "crushed" by the revelation, noting, "he's the most important thing in my life."
Still, the road to sobriety wasn't linear, with the situation reaching a boiling point after Kelley disappeared overnight during a trip to Greece after he and Cassie got into a fight. When he came back the following morning after spending a night out drinking, she was adamant about his need for help and admitted she was considering divorce.
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"We have a 7-year-old whose either going to be in my home all the time, or he's going to be half the time in a home with his dad where I have no idea what's happening in that environment, and in order for me to take myself out of his life every day, it just never got to be that bad," Cassie said of weighing that option as a wife and mom. "Until it just is, and that's kind of where we were leaving Greece."
Kelley left that trip and flew directly to treatment and prioritizes working on rebuilding trust with his family today.
"It just makes me feel so grateful at how close I came to losin' it all," Kelley said. "And I think the thing that's hard is to know how much it affected Cassie the most, and my band, and the people around me. And how much it emotionally kinda wrecked them for a while. And that, I can't really say I'm sorry enough. And it's just gonna take time to rebuild that."
Last August, Lady A announced that they were postponing their upcoming tour to 2023 so that Kelley could get sober.
"Being on the road with our fans is our greatest joy, so it was a hard but important decision to make," the group wrote in a statement at the time. "We are a band, but more importantly… we're family. We're proud to say that Charles has embarked on a journey to sobriety."
Days later, Kelley thanked his supporters in a message shared on Instagram that said he was "grateful for this time to focus on my family and my health."
"As Far as You Could" is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and other online platforms.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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