Exclusive: Willie Aames Fights Back Following Suicide Attempt

January 7, 2009

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Willie confides that he tumbled into a dark pit of despair when Maylo Upton, his wife of 22 years, asked for a divorce. Depressed and shaken, he left their Kansas home and rented a room from a friend in Los Angeles. That's when Willie lost it.

"I stole a bottle of Jack Daniel's from the guy I was renting the room from," Willie tells Star in an exclusive interview. "I'd been sober for 20 years when I took that first drink. I was also taking antidepressants and antianxiety pills. It got so bad, I put a knife to my throat and cut myself in six places. The police came, put me in handcuffs and whisked me away. I was completely devastated... I kept asking, 'What did I do wrong?'"

Just a month earlier, Willie — whose last TV appearance was on the VH1 reality series Celebrity Fit Club — had declared bankruptcy and had his car repossessed. Then Maylo, 45, left him. It was more than he could take. After he was taken to the USC psych ward in L.A., a doctor told him that "most people were there because they'd either lost a job, a family member or relocated," Willie recalls. "I was there for of all those."

Pick up the Star — on sale now — for the full story, including his doctor's scary observation, his drastic decision to quit taking his medications cold turkey and what he's doing to carve out a new life for himself.