By Michaela Gordoni
Desi Arnaz, who played Ricky Ricardo in I LOVE LUCY, became sober after he got advice from his son, who also struggled with addiction.
“Desi’s second wife had died,” said Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television author Todd S. Purdum. “He was alone. He knew he was drinking too much.”
“He knew he was drinking himself to death. And he turned to Desi Jr., who was sober by then, and asked for help. His son said, ‘I can’t help you, but I know a place that can.’”
Arnaz knew he was in a bad place. In 1981, he got treatment under the name Bill Sanchez to protect his privacy.
The actor had told his son, Desi Jr., “I need help. I don’t want to die.”
His daughter, Lucie, said he resisted going to rehab for a long time and actually left the hospital after a few days. But he soon returned to the program.
“Desi was proud,” said Purdum. “…He was stubborn in that way. And alcoholism was much more stigmatized back then.”
“He committed to AA meetings, treatment programs,” Lucie Arnaz told CBS Sunday Morning. “It was fantastic. My greatest memory of him to this day was him standing up [in a treatment center] in La Jolla. The guy who said, ‘I don’t air my dirty laundry in front of other people.’ …he got up and said, ‘My name is Desi and I’m an alcoholic.’”
“I think Desi suffered from what we would now call PTSD,” Purdum explained. “He had to leave everything behind in Cuba when he was a teenager. His family lost everything to the revolution. They came to this country without a penny in their pockets.”
His experience affected him his whole life, and he had the stress of being a business mogul.
“I think he sought some self-anesthetization, some relief, and alcohol was the safety valve that he turned to,” the author said.
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“He writes in his memoir that he’d always enjoyed drinking,” Purdum continued. “He’d always had a big appetite for drinking… He loved food, drink, women and song. And he seems to have been the kind of person who grabbed life by the handful.”
Arnaz had married Lucille Ball, but their careers and Arnaz’s penchant for women and drinking led to their divorce.
“One of the things that went wrong was…they started the show so they could be together,” said Purdum. “They could live together in Los Angeles and work together. Desi was on the road with his band a lot.”
“Lucille was making movies in Hollywood. They were often separated. So the show was created partly to save their marriage,” he said.
As Arnaz’s success grew, so did his drinking.
“He was out of control, both with his alcohol consumption and his womanizing,” said Purdum. “I think it just became too much for Lucille to take.”
Both of the stars remarried.
A year after rehab, Arnaz learned he had lung cancer. When he was dying, he spoke with Ball. Their last words to each other were “I love you” on Nov. 30, 1986. It would have been their 46th wedding anniversary. Arnaz died two days later.
“He got better too late,” said Purdum. “I think that’s one of the things that’s very sad about the last part of his story. He did finally have the courage to face some of his problems, but not in time to save his life.”
“To his children, Desi was a complicated, but very loving, talented, self-taught visionary,” said Purdum. “Ricky Ricardo is a wonderful character, and Desi did a good job of playing him, but he’s not just some guy who talked funny and played the drums. He was a remarkable figure, and I think that’s really worth knowing.”
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