Lucie Arnaz says her proudest moment with her father, Desi Arnaz, was when he publicly admitted he was an alcoholic.
The only daughter of Arnaz and Lucille Ball, 73, spoke candidly about her father’s alcoholism in a CBS “Sunday Morning” interview, which aired on June 15.
The “Here’s Lucy” alum shared that she visited her father while he was undergoing treatment and noted he was a “guy who said, ‘I don’t air dirty laundry in front of other people,’…he got up and said, ‘My name is Desi and I’m an alcoholic.’”
“And that’s my proudest moment, that he stood up next to me and I watched him do that.”
Lucie noted that it took her father, whom she described as “complicated,” a long time to get to that point.
Years earlier, Lucie’s brother, Desi Jr., 72, sought treatment for his alcoholism, and Desi Sr., “didn’t go because he doesn’t do that.”
However, after Desi’s second wife, Edie Hirsch, died in 1985, Desi acknowledged he had a problem.
That was when, Lucie said, “he finally, he said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ And he asked my brother to help him.’”
Desi began “to take responsibility and try to solve it,” Lucie remembered. “It’s a disease, and he finally wrapped his head around that, and I was so very proud of him. Unfortunately, it happened about three years too late. Because by that time, he figured out about later, that he had lung cancer … and he only lasted a year.”
Lucie recalled that he was unable to attend AA meetings, “He was sick, on morphine, it was bad.”
Desi died in 1986, aged 69. Lucille Ball passed away in 1989, at the age of 77. The couple married in 1940 and divorced in 1960.
There has been renewed interest in Desi with the release of a new biography, “Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television” by Todd S. Purdham.
If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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