That’s one way to look at it.
Remember back in 2008 when photos surfaced of Balthazar Getty making out with a topless Sienna Miller in Italy?
Yeah, he was a married man with kids…
Getty’s wife, Rosetta left him for four years after seeing the photos, but the two are back together.
“Without going down, you can’t rise again,” Getty told the Evening Standard, referring to his affair with Miller as “ancient history” that occurred in “another lifetime.”
The 41 actor-turned-DJ, an heir to the Getty fortune, was forced to reevaluate his life in the wake of such a scandal.
Coming from a privileged background was more of a curse than it was a blessing, Getty has admitted. As his 40th birthday approached, he decided to quit smoking and “stop whining” about his net worth (which is just north of $ 250 million).
“I’ve gotten more comfortable with who I am. Where I come from, being ‘a Getty,”‘ he admitted.
“I don’t see it any more as something I have to run from, or prove to people that I’m not who they might perceive me to be. I’ve been able to own that and feel good about it.”
Getty also comes from a long line of substance abuse; His father, John Paul Getty III suffered a stroke from a drug binge in 1981 that left him a quadriplegic with vision problems until his death in 2011.
“It’s no secret that my father and grandfather had major drug addiction problems, and addiction runs rampant in many families. If you add wealth and celebrity on top of that, it can be lethal.”
Getty admits that he, too, fell prey to addiction.
What were his drugs of choice?
“Didn’t really matter. [Anything] just to elevate me. A lot of people do drugs and alcohol to self-medicate.
“For me it was about the search for higher consciousness,” he answered admitting that every now and then he’ll enjoy a joint, but nothing beyond that.
Getty plans to release an album of remixes later this year.
