Melanie Griffith’s Journey Through Addiction and How She Overcame It

The Hollywood icon has previously opened up about her struggles with substance abuse and how they affected her role as a mother and wife. The actress had to go through rehab three times.

Melanie Griffith has dazzled audiences across the world with her stellar performances onscreen, cementing herself as a household name in the cinematic industry. However, amid her meteoric success, the "Working Girl" star faced personal struggles of her own.

Griffith underwent treatment for substance abuse in 1988, 2000, and 2009. Her on-and-off battle with addiction to drugs and alcohol began in her late teens, after she married her first husband, actor Don Johnson.

Four years after her first trip to rehab, the actress admitted she had an "addictive personality." In an interview, she said she was "lucky to be alive. I was never as bad as some people I knew, shooting heroin and stuff. But I did do a lot of drinking and cocaine. I just thought I was having a good time."

Her first wake-up call came after she showed up drunk to the set of "Working Girl" drunk, when director Mike Nichols pulled her aside. Griffith recalled the moment — and the subsequent consequences — in the 2019 book, "Life Isn't Everything: Mike Nichols as Remembered By 150 of His Closest Friends."

"The next morning he (Nichols) took me to breakfast and said, 'Here's what's going to happen. You're going to pay for last night out of your pocket. We're not going to report you to the studio, but you have to pay for what it cost,' and it was $80,000," she wrote, per Biography.

"They wanted to get my attention and they really did. It was a very humbling, embarrassing experience, but I learned a lot from it," she said. During a 1994 interview with Vanity Fair, the "Lolita" star revealed that her days often started with vodka and ended with cocaine.

Despite where this led her, she was unapologetic about her past. "I didn't get something that I needed when I was little. I was never loved unconditionally," she told the outlet.

Griffith, the daughter of Hollywood stars Tippi Hedren and Peter Griffith, reflected further, "Coke, booze, give you a feeling, a physical sensation ... a buzz inside your body that takes the place of something you should have had when you were a child."

Unfortunately, nearly a decade later, Griffith relapsed and found herself checking into rehab for a second time. By then, she was already married to her now–ex-husband Antonio Banderas. The "Desperado" star stood by her side through it all.

Griffith had also become a mom to her three children: son Alexander Bauer and daughters Dakota Johnson and Stella Banderas. Despite her struggles, she remained involved in her children's lives. "

I was a totally functioning mom," she told The Porter in 2017. "I wasn't like a drunk-on-the-floor, out-of-it person. I didn't do some things I probably should have done but, mostly, I was there for my kids. They had a sort of privileged gypsy life." Griffith would relapse again in 2009.

"I started on pain pills when I hurt my knee skiing and just kept taking them," she told AARP in 2011. "The kids knew; Dakota and Stella called me on it. Antonio was in London at the time. I went away to rehab for three months; it took 10 days just to detox."

Griffith said Banderas was supportive but her addiction took a toll on their marriage. "Antonio was supportive to the extent that he can be, but if you're not an alcoholic or drug addict, and you find out that your wife is a bad one, it's hard to deal with," she said.

The couple later divorced in 2015. After her last stint in rehab, the 68-year-old has maintained her sobriety.