John Stamos Talks Rehab and Surprise Pregnancy

"Full House" actor reveals he got a woman pregnant in his 20s.

ByABC News
January 5, 2016, 1:04 AM

— -- John Stamos is coming clean about his personal life, including his recent DUI and a surprise pregnancy in his 20s.

"I had a horrific DUI, which I am so embarrassed by," he told Howard Stern in an interview that aired Monday on SiriusXM. "I could have hurt somebody, it was really stupid and ignorant of me. And I hated myself for that. It was a bad, bad thing. So I said to myself, I have to stop this up and down, up and down, I have to."

Stamos was sentenced to 3 years of probation and entered rehab in July.

After a month-long stay, he said he no longer drinks and is finally free of all his former substances, including antidepressants and the sleeping pill Ambien.

"I really don't have anything to hide anymore," he told Stern.

The former "Full House" star, 52, was candid about what may have led to his substance abuse.

"My father passed away and I got divorced," he said, referring to his seven-year marriage to actress Rebecca Romijn, which ended in 2005. "It sent me sort of down a wrong path."

But he said his mother's passing in September 2014 "knocked [him] off" even further.

"We needed each other and she needed me and [after his father's death] I sort of became my father and she sort of became my wife -- obviously not in a weird way," Stamos explained. "It was a big part of my purpose for many, many years to be there for her and be a good son."

After his mother's death, Stamos said he found himself "dipping into that dark place" more and more until his arrest for a DUI.

These days, Stamos is in a much better place.

"Those days are over. I feel even all the time," he said.

The "only thing that's missing," he said are children.

The star revealed that he once had a chance at a family in his 20s, when he got a woman pregnant.

"It was just bad timing," he said of the surprise pregnancy, adding that "it was sort of a mutual decision," not to continue the pregnancy.