{"id":486502,"date":"2026-10-06T04:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T04:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486502\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T04:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T04:30:12","slug":"anaheim-mayor-admits-drinking-problem-denies-racist-slurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486502\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim Mayor Admits Drinking Problem, Denies Racist Slurs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken has publicly acknowledged her struggle with alcohol and revealed she checked into the Betty Ford Center for rehabilitation in June 2025. <\/p>\n<p>In a recent Instagram post, Aitken admitted to having an &#8220;unhealthy relationship&#8221; with alcohol but denied allegations of using racist slurs against her chief of staff, Berenice Ballinas.<\/p>\n<p>The revelations come amid a legal claim filed by Ballinas, accusing Aitken of making derogatory remarks about her ethnicity and sexual orientation. Ballinas&#8217; claim also alleges that Aitken engaged in inappropriate behavior at various public events, including a City Council meeting and a Disneyland event. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/local.anaheim.net\/docs_agend\/questys_pub\/51459\/51463\/51496\/51497\/51497.1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">claim<\/a>, Aitken&#8217;s actions have led to a hostile work environment.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the allegations, the Anaheim City Council held a closed-door meeting, and city officials have now retained an independent investigator to look into the matter. Councilmember Carlos Leon emphasized the importance of a fair investigation, stating, &#8220;I believe in due process for everyone involved and allowing the facts to guide any conclusions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Aitken, who is running for reelection in November, has expressed regret for her actions and pledged to continue her recovery journey. She stated, &#8220;I apologize to anyone burdened by my drinking, especially my family. They all deserved better from me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The investigation is expected to take several months, extending beyond the upcoming election. Aitken&#8217;s challengers include Dr. Imran Sharief and Alfredo Rodriguez. As the investigation unfolds, the community awaits further developments in this high-profile case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken has publicly acknowledged her struggle with alcohol and revealed she checked into the Betty&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[6641,190162,163,165,164,19740,185466,190164,204,348,190163,91333],"class_list":["post-486502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-ai-assisted","tag-alcohol-problem","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-ashleigh-aitken","tag-berenice-ballinas","tag-betty-ford-center","tag-election","tag-investigation","tag-racist-slurs","tag-rehab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}