Barry Keoghan Details Addiction Battle After Deaths of His Parents
Originally appeared on E! Online
is reflecting on what made him the man he is today.
The Saltburn actor—who was just a child when his parents lost their battles with addiction—is detailing his own journey.
'My father passed away as a result of similar and I lost my mum to it,' Barry recently told Hollywood Authentic of his mother Debbie, who died when he was 12. 'I've lost two uncles and a cousin to drugs.'
'That should be enough to go, 'OK, if I dabble here, I'm f--ked,'' he continued. 'But your curiosity is a powerful thing. Sometimes it's beneficial, and sometimes it's detrimental. For me, it was detrimental.'
Looking back, Barry has painful memories from growing up in his Dublin hometown.
'I remember being kids here,' he noted, 'and hearing my mum scream through the letterbox while she's battling addiction—while she's looking for money to score.'
The Dunkirk actor's mom battled a heroin addiction up until she died in 2003 after a period in rehab.
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'We were just told to stay in bed,' he recalled, adding that he and his brother Eric Keoghan were inseparable at the time. 'We weren't to go down and hug her.'
Following his mother's death, Barry spent the rest of his childhood in and out of foster homes before living with his 'nannie,' Patty. And he found himself taking an interest in acting throughout primary and secondary school—though he was briefly banned from school plays because, as he put it, 'I was bold. Misbehaving. Whatever you want to call it.'
Somewhere along the way, however, the Eternals actor found himself battling an addiction of his own.
'I'm not in denial anymore,' the 32-year-old explained. 'I understand that I do have an addiction, and I am an addict. You know, when you accept that, you finally can move on, and learn to work with it.'
In his case, Barry added that not even the birth of his 2-year-old son —who he shares with ex Alyson Sandro—was enough to pull him out of his dangerous habits.
'You go to LA, you go to Hollywood, wherever the big scene is,' he continued. 'There's an enormous amount of pressure, and a different lifestyle that is good and bad for you. You're around the scene. You just happen to be the one that ends up doing it. I've got scars here to literally prove it.'
But in more recent months, the Batman actor has come to take accountability for his struggles and decided to focus his energy on becoming a better father.
'I'm at peace now,' Barry noted, 'and responsible for everything that I do. I'm accepting. I'm present. I'm content. I'm a father.'
'I feel like I've arrived,' he added. 'I apologise, too, mainly to myself more than anything else for all the pain I've put people and myself through.'
For more celebrities that have opened up about addictions and sobriety, keep reading.
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