During his darkest hours, Neal McDonough found a beacon of light in the form of Luke Perry. The actor from "Desperate Housewives" recounted how the late star of "Beverly Hills, 90210" had his back when he was "lost everything" to a drinking problem. McDonough attributed this struggle to being blacklisted in Hollywood as a "religious nut bag" for refusing to kiss a costar onscreen.
"Luke saw me one night at a premiere and he saw I was a mess," McDonough recalled in an interview with Fox News published on May 26th. "He said, 'What's going on with you? I hear things aren't going so great.'"
When McDonough opened up to Perry about his struggles, the actor—who passed away in 2019 at the age of 52—extended a heartwarming invitation. "He said, 'Why don't you stay at my house? I don't live there anymore. It's right by your house in Hancock Park. Stay there for as long as you want.'" In fact, Perry handed over the keys to McDonough on the spot.
"I was like, 'You mean it?'" McDonough recounted. "And he was like, 'Yeah, here's the keys.'"
This gesture greatly moved McDonough, who was heavily drinking to cope with his lack of job offers. As he put it, "'What time is the bar open?' That was generally my thought process back then."
Despite quitting drinking thanks to the support of his family and friends, McDonough still struggled with self-worth. "I still didn't think I was worth anything because I failed my family," he continued. "That crucifixion caused me so much inner pain because I made it all about me. How could I let the team down?"
However, McDonough has since found greater appreciation for his wife, Ruvé Robertson, with whom he shares five children. He said he loves her "so much" that he refuses to kiss another woman onscreen. "It's just a cold, hard fact that God gave me an amazing, incredible, most amazing woman that I've ever met," he said. "She's my good luck charm, and she got through me hell."
Since then, McDonough has gone on to star in various works, including "Justified," "Suits," "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," "Arrow," "Legends of Tomorrow," and "Tulsa King."
