Troubled actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers made headlines in recent days after he was detained by police at Los Angeles International Airport on July 8 following in-flight drama with his wife and flight attendants.
Now new details about his behavior on the Miami-to-L.A. flight have emerged.
Britain's Sun Online spoke to a first-class passenger who claims to have been sitting in front of the Irish actor, his wife, Mara Lane, and their 1-year-old son, Wolf, during the journey.
The female passenger alleges that Jonathan, who has a long history of alcohol abuse — TMZ previously reported that he was drinking on the plane and had to be asked by a flight attendant to stop vaping in the restroom — was "behaving erratically" and "intimidating other passengers" during the entire journey.
Before the American Airlines flight took off, the "Vikings" and "The Tudors" star's behavior unnerved fellow fliers.
"Even in the waiting area he was being mean to his wife. He was sat on his own while she was feeding their child and playing with him on the floor. He kept going over to her and telling her off, but he had no interaction with his child whatsoever," the passenger told Sun Online.
"Then they asked for those people who need extra assistance to get on the plane and Jonathan got up. The lady at the gate said, 'Excuse me, sir, we're taking the people that need more assistance.' And he shouted, 'I'm first class, how dare you.' And he started getting very loud and they had a really bad altercation. He got very angry that she asked him to get out of the line and he was cursing at her and yelling. And then she said to him, 'If you continue to behave this way you will not be getting on the plane.'"
He calmed down enough to board, but once on the plane, his actions left staff and passengers concerned.
"He was requesting drink after drink — I heard one time he asked for a spritzer but I don't know what else he was drinking," the passenger told Sun Online. "He was up and down up to the restroom the whole way — I counted over 15 times. And you could hear him banging in there, it was weird. Throughout the journey he was getting more and more agitated, mumbling, cursing under his breath and kicking the ground. He could not sit still. At one point my husband had to switch seats with me because it was awful, I couldn't relax."
The passenger had, early on in the journey, asked to have her seat moved, but was told there were no other suitable options. "He was a real angry, erratic, dark individual. I was so intimidated that when I saw he was sat directly behind me on board I asked if I could be moved to another seat," she said. "Unfortunately the only other seat was broken but they told the captain about my concerns."
Flight attendants tried to calm Jonathan, the passenger claims, "but that made him worse and at one point he started crying really loudly." At one point, his jeans had fallen down to his knees, the passenger added. "I don't even think he'd noticed." Flight attendants also had to pick up cigarette butts that fell from his clothing onto the floor, she alleges.
Mara tried to separate herself from her husband by putting up a privacy screen. At one point, a flight attendant asked her if she could intervene, the passenger said. "They told her that if he didn't stop using the e-cigarette, we'd have to land the plane early and get him off so she tried to tell him that."
But Jonathan did not react well when his wife spoke to him. "That's when he really lost it — he was yelling at her, 'f— you, shut the f— up, I'm divorcing you when I get back, you're annoying leave me the f— alone,'" the passenger claimed, adding that Mara stayed calm "and told him it would be okay and tried to give him a water bottle, but he shoved it back at her and said, 'Just f—ing stay away from me."
The passenger told Sun Online that she is worried about Mara and Wolf. "[Jonathan] was pushing at her little divider and telling her to get [it] down — it was horrible, a total outburst. I real[ly] fear for his wife and their child," the passenger said.
Jonathan was later separated from his wife and son and put in the broken seat and, claims the passenger, watched over by an off-duty pilot. When the plane landed, police were waiting and spoke to the actor, who was released after briefly being detained. The passenger, who gave a statement to cops, told Sun Online that she reached out to Mara to urge her to seek help for herself and her son. "No one should be treated like that," the passenger explained.
Mara took to Instagram after Jonathan's behavior made headlines on July 9 to apologize for her husband's behavior and explain that they are struggling with his addiction issues and trying to work through them as a family.
"8 months of sobriety and an unfortunate day of airline travel. We were in South America specifically working holistically through anger issues that result in these kinds of episodes. When in it… he is not in a frame of mind where he can really even comprehend the repercussions and necessary response to his own actions," she explained. "J IS extremely sorry for any inconveniences caused to anyone traveling yesterday. There was no argument, just me asking him to not use his e cig per stewardess' request to me and him not being himself, speaking very very unkindly. It was out of his character."
"It was unbeknownst to me anything that happened on flight, as I was with my son with a privacy wall up. We are home safe and he is feeling deeply sorry for any remote disrespect afforded to me, attendants, onlookers or officers. Thank you for your compassion on this ongoing battle with addiction we are in," Mara concluded.