Troubled Couple Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller Seek Simultaneous Rehab
Charlie Sheen heads back to rehab to repair his family and his image.
Feb. 23, 2010— -- Charlie Sheen's decision to take time off from his hit television show, and his family, to enter rehab at the same time as his wife has left the couple's 11-month-old twins with two parents in crisis.
Their children are reportedly being cared for by nannies, according to TMZ.com.
The actor's well-publicized arrest on Christmas Day after a fight with Brooke Mueller has set off a string of attempts not only to reconcile with her and rebuild their family but to once again repair his public image.
The stint in rehab, called a "preventive measure" by Sheen's publicist, was praised by Hazelden Addiction Treatment Center vice president of foundation relations William Moyers, who has struggled with addiction himself.
"Good for Charlie if, in fact, it is a preventive measure," he said. "A lot of people struggle at times to stay on top of the addiction."
Moyers, who has not met with Sheen, said the pressures of being a new father to twins and carrying one of television's top-rated shows could have set off a relapse.
"The reality is he's a well-known Hollywood actor, he's got two young babies at home and his wife has struggled with these isues as well," Moyers said.
Sheen's latest skirmish with the law -- he's still facing charges of felony menacing, third-degree assault and criminal mischief -- has put not only his marriage in jeopardy but his CBS sitcom too. His stint in rehab will pull him off his hit show, "Two and a Half Men," and take him away from the family he seems desperate to save.
A spokesman for Sheen said he would be back on the set in two weeks. It was not immediately clear what kind of treatment Sheen will receive.
But Sheen's public struggle with addiction shouldn't be seen as a Hollywood problem, Moyers said.
"This whole country struggles with substance abuse disorders," he said.
Sheen has checked into rehab before. The news of his latest stint followed multiple media reports that his wife had recently checked into a Los Angeles rehab center after leaving a Malibu facility.
Sheen hasn't had an easy couple of months since his Dec. 25 arrest. His Mercedes was stolen this month and found overturned in a ravine, 300 to 400 feet down a cliff near his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home.
Sheen's Christmas Gone Wrong
Sheen, 44, was arrested on Christmas Day in Aspen, Colo., after Mueller, 32, called 911 and tearfully choked out the words, "My husband had me with a knife. I was scared for my life and he threatened me."
She described the knife as a "switchblade."
At a Feburary hearing in Aspen, the judge lifted a "no contact" portion of a mandatory protective order that kept Sheen from Mueller, allowing the two to leave the courthouse together. Sheen and Mueller married in 2008 and have twin sons, Max and Bob.
On Jan. 20, the judge signed an emergency order that allowed Sheen to visit Mueller, who had been hospitalized with pneumonia in Los Angeles. The order allowed the actor to communicate with his wife in the hospital unless she asked him to leave.
When Mueller was rushed to the hospital with a life-threatening fever, and later checked into a North Carolina rehab facility after her Jan. 26 release, rumors emerged that the former real estate agent was abusing drugs and alcohol.
Mueller was charged with a DUI in 1996 and cocaine possession in 2001.
Mueller's mother, Moira Fiore, tried to set the record straight last week in a recent issue of In Touch Weekly. She told the magazine Mueller had been rushed to the hospital because of a dangerous fever that resulted from having her wisdom teeth removed.
"The infections and pneumonia are what caused the shutting down of her organs," Fiore told In Touch. "Brooke was very sick."
It was Mueller and Sheen's past history of alcohol abuse that People magazine said led to a Christmas Eve spat that turned ugly during the early hours of Dec. 25.
In an audio recording of a 911 call, a woman who identifies herself as Brooke tells the dispatcher that her husband threatened her with a knife and added, "I thought I was going to die for one hour."
When asked her husband's name, she waits before admitting "It's Charlie Sheen," and starts crying.