By India McCarty
MARRIED…WITH CHILDREN star David Faustino says his mother’s death led him to get sober.
“She was a great mom. It was tough when she left,” the actor said during an appearance on the “Messy” podcast.
Faustino said he went off the “deep end” when she died, partying and abusing alcohol and drugs to numb the pain.
“It took me getting sober to even be able to — for three years, I sat around in a puddle of my own tears, thinking I could never heal and that life had handed me a hand that I would never heal from,” he explained. “And, you know, meanwhile, was drinking and drugging.”
Faustino continued, “Within about four months of being sober, I was able to acknowledge and be like, ‘Oh, my mom is dead. Right? She’s gone. That’s what people do. They get old enough, they die. And she was a great mom, and you got to have all these tremendous experiences that most people only dream of having with their mothers.’”
“And now I’m on the other side of it. I’m able to have this conversation [about her] without crying,” he added.
He also credited co-star Christina Applegate for helping him get sober.
“I appreciate everything you did at that time too, even though it was difficult,” he told her during the episode. “But I appreciate all your help through the whole thing. I’m just really grateful, and here I am, you know, on the other side of it.”
Faustino concluded, “It’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made, sobriety. Besides having my kids, it’s the greatest decision I’ve ever made in my life.”
Katey Sagal, who played Faustino and Applegate’s mom on the popular sitcom, remarked on the pair’s bond during her own appearance on MESSY.
“[Applegate was] very bright, you know, very funny, very nurturing with David,” Sagal said. “I mean, I thought she really took care of David.”
Faustino remains close to the rest of the cast of MARRIED…WITH CHILDREN, which was a tight-knit group. In a 2024 MESSY episode, Applegate said Ed O’Neill, who played her TV dad, “raised” her.
“Eddie knows that I went through so many behind-the-scenes stuff in my life that I was kind of breaking apart,” she shared. “And so my way of keeping myself together was keeping this armor up. I mean, he went through everything with me. My mom’s cancer and other things.”
While Faustino suffered a heartbreaking loss, it’s inspiring to see how he used it — and his close relationships with his former co-stars — to finally get sober.
Read Next: TO ALL THE BOYS’ Noah Centineo Celebrates Sobriety: ‘Like a Superpower’
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