Dean McDermott is on the outs with estranged wife Tori Spelling and their five children.
McDermott, 56, spoke out about his split from Spelling, 50, during a Wednesday, November 15, interview with the Daily Mail.
The actor told the outlet that he hasn’t seen his family since June, when Spelling moved out of their rented home due to a mold problem along with their children: sons Liam, 16, Finn, 11, and Beau, 6, and daughters Stella, 15, and Hattie, 12. (McDermott also shares son Jack, 25, with ex-wife Mary Jo Eustace.)
That same month, McDermott announced the pair’s separation via Instagram but deleted the post hours later. He told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that Spelling said he needed to go to treatment after he drunkenly posted about their marriage.
“She helped find Harmony Place and got me in here,” he said. “All Tori’s ever done to this day is want me to be happy and healthy and I inflicted a lot of damage and pain on that woman. I’m taking accountability for that today. And it’s the biggest amend that I’m ever going to have to make.”
McDermott opened up about the factors that led to his split from Spelling, whom he wed in 2006. He admitted that his behavior while drunk often left his wife and children “petrified.” McDermott completed a 40-day stint in rehab over the summer and now resides in a sober living home with eight other men.
“Alcohol made me feel good enough. I started feeling good enough until it got to a point where it didn’t — it ended up in isolation,” the Canada native explained. “It ended up with me drinking a fifth of tequila every night, seven days a week, and a handful of narcos by myself with a beautiful family in the other room. That’s what it led to and that’s what led to the brokenness and to what happened between me and Tori.”
McDermott said that not sleeping in the same bed for years — which started because McDermott didn’t want to share a room with pets including dogs, a pig and a chicken — also contributed to the breakdown of the relationship.
“It’s like docking your iPhone at night. If you don’t dock your iPhone at night, you wake up with a dead battery. I believe that the marital bed is the docking station for your relationship,” he said. “It’s where you download information. It’s where you spend time together. It’s where you’re intimate, it’s where you love. You laugh and you cry. So, [if] that’s gone, the relationship suffers greatly.”
Although McDermott hasn’t seen his family in months, he said that he’s been communicating with Spelling and hopes to see his children soon. Both he and Spelling have pursued new romantic connections since their split. McDermott began seeing Lily Calo in October, and Spelling was spotted kissing CEO Ryan Cramer last month.
McDermott has no problem with Spelling reentering the dating scene.
“She’s given [her love] to me for 18 years and I’ve been so hard and brutal on her that I just want her to be loved and happy. She deserves it,” he said.
Although McDermott and Spelling’s love story hit a snag, McDermott is still proud of their relationship.
“After we got married, they were all saying, ‘Give it six months.’ Well, so much for six months. We showed you, because it’s been 18 years and five kids,” he said. “Life happens. It’s tough having kids. It’s tough living in this town; tough having financial problems. It’s just really tough. I’m not making excuses. I certainly had my hand in it in the dissolution of the relationship. But yeah, [it] hasn’t been easy. Nothing in life is easy.”
