Off-screen, though, it was the toxicity that won out across a decades-long struggle with addiction. Again and again he seemed to hit rock bottom. But there was always a way to sink lower.
Much like TV’s other great nerd actor, Friends star Matthew Perry, his drinking and drug use were already out of hand while he had steady employment. At one point, during Buffy’s later seasons, Gellar reportedly offered to pay for him to undergo treatment.
But it was after Buffy that things turned bleak. He had stints in rehab in 2004 and 2010; he was arrested on multiple occasions and once had to be tasered and restrained by the police. In 2015, he was detained for trashing a hotel room in Florida, days after separating from his second wife, Moonda Tee. That same year, police were again called after he wrecked another hotel room and grabbed his then-girlfriend by the throat. He was arrested again in 2017 following another incident of domestic violence, and was charged with domestic violence in 2019.