(Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage)
Former child star Todd Bridges is constantly left annoyed by people who continue to question whether he is clean and sober because he has stayed out of trouble for more than two decades.
The “Diff’rent Strokes” actor sank into a downward spiral of drug addiction after the hit show came to an end in 1986, after allegedly suffering abuse at the hands of his father and being sexually molested by his former agent.
He struggled through a string of arrests, a spell in prison and time in rehab, before finally managing to overcome his substance abuse issues with the help of his mother’s tough love.
The 48-year-old is now approaching 21 years of sobriety, but he still has to field queries about his past problems, and now he’s had enough.
He tells “Access Hollywood Live,” “I am going on 21 years sober. They (people) still ask my agent, ‘Is he OK?’ I haven’t been in trouble in 21 years! You have not seen me on the news, in handcuffs or in trouble, in 21 years! Why are you still asking if I’m OK? That’s a problem.”
And Bridges admits he has mastered the art of avoiding temptation in Hollywood – something he claims young stars like Lindsay Lohan could learn from too.
He says, “I’ve learned a very valuable lesson and the lesson is: you do your job and you go home and you don’t get involved in anything going on on the sets. You don’t care about anything else; all you worry about is yourself. And that keeps you out of trouble and that keeps you from being talked about. Just do your job and go home.”
Lohan is working on rebuilding her acting career after recently completing a court-ordered 90-day stint in rehab.
