WILLIE AAMES ON HIS SUICIDE GOSSIP RUMORS

TV actor Willie Aames best known for his roles in the sitcoms Eight is Enough and Charles and Charge tells Chris Yandek of CYInterview.com that he didn't try to commit suicide back at the end of 2008. Aames says his behavior stemmed from going off antidepressant medication he'd been on for over 10 years, "I was in L.A. working on a show after my wife had left and I had begun to run out of those medications and I had sent word back to Kansas City for my ex wife to send them out. It took almost eight days before they ever were sent out. I had them sent to an address I was not at and that person there was gone. I ended up going cold turkey off those things and it’s never a good thing." Aames continues, "Obviously I was depressed. I did something that I hadn’t done in 20 years, which was gone out and gotten drunk and I did some really stupid stuff. Now the story comes out that I tried to commit suicide. I don’t ever remember wanting to harm myself or anything else." Recently, Aames has filed for bankruptcy and divorced his wife of 25 years. He also admits that he was homeless as recent as five months ago, "Five months ago I was sleeping under the bushes of the Hollywood Bowl. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have a place to live. I had virtually nothing. I was in the worst shape I’ve ever been in, in my life. Now five months later, I have a car. I have a job. I am solvent. I do have a place to live. I have a computer. I have a phone. That’s a lot to accomplish in five months for anybody let alone somebody who’s almost 50. I really believe that we can bounce back and I can bounce back. I’m a pretty resilient guy.”
Photo By: Walter McBride/Retna