COLUMBUS SHORT TALKS TO ACCESS HOLLYWOOD

Columbus Short



Columbus Short exclusively opens up to Access Hollywood about his past arrests, leaving ABC’s ‘Scandal’ and closing the chapter on his complicated divorce.


“The last three months have been probably the most trying times of my life”- Columbus Short

Over the holiday weekend, Columbus Short was arrested in Dallas for public intoxication. This news comes after a rough few months for the former ‘Scandal’ star who has had various run-ins with the law, ultimately causing ABC to end his contract on the hit TV show, ‘Scandal.’ Columbus, in an emotional interview, spoke exclusively with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush to share his side of the story. The show airs tomorrow July 8th.


INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:


"I think there's a time when your personal life gets magnified by who we are as celebrities.”


When asked about the Dallas incident on 4th of July: “There's something visceral that happened inside of me, and yah, I'll say it, even as a black man in handcuffs on the ground, for no justifiable reason at all. I wasn’t acting intoxicated, I had had a couple of drink, but whatever, I was angry and I used my vocabulary to kind of fight that.”



“Let’s talk about ABC and let’s talk about the show ‘Scandal.’ They did not throw me to the curb like trash - that's my family. They knew that I was going through a tough season and rallied around me and wrapped their arms around me, from Shonda to the craft service man. We’re a family and I think at a certain point when you're getting a barrage of stories after stories, ABC justifiably would want to distance themselves…. They did the right thing but I think it takes time to rebuild.”


“I lost a lot of things due to these ugly stories, whether they are true or not, the allegations just put an ugly, nasty taste in people's mouth and that's the unfair part that I've had to weather.”


Billy asked Columbus if he thought he had a drinking problem: “To be honest with you, I struggle with medicating with alcohol I think, and that’s a real truth. I think that deserves more looking into. If I want to be truthfully honest, I think dealing with the stress of the situations that I've been going through, medicating with anything, I think is dangerous because it becomes a crutch. But it doesn’t change it, the situation. That's the funny part- I'm in a season where that's not a part of my life-- alcohol, drugs, those kinds of things aren’t around me, aren’t in my life, so it was an unfortunate event that happened the other night. Still yet, I think in the past that was definitely a struggle for me.”


On the domestic abuse allegations: “Me and my wife, we're going through problems. Serious, serious problems. However, the domestic part of it… I'm not a physically violent man…. I've never put my hands on a woman, physically, ever, and would not. I was raised by women.”


When asked about his estranged wife and if there’s any chance for a future together, Short responded: "This chapter is closed. There's a new chapter, and I'm not the author of this, God is…. But I know that chapter is closed and I’m excited for the next one.”




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