Brandon “Bam” Margera, a mainstay of the crew responsible for the early 2000s TV and movie series Jackass , announced prior to the new year that he has returned to rehab for his alcoholism.
“Off to alcohol rehab for the 3rd time,” Margera posted to Instagram Monday. “I am hoping the term 3rd time is a charm is true.” Margera can be seen holding a child, presumably his son, in the Instagram photo, which was sent to Margera’s 1.8 million followers.
The trip to rehab comes about a year after Margera last entered a program, following an arrest for DUI, as reported by Page Six . Last fall, Margera posted an Instragram video in which he cracked open a beer, leading his longtime co-star Steve-O to state publicly that he doubted Margera’s claims that he’d been sober for several months.
First known as a professional skateboarder, as part of the CKY crew, the now 39-year-old Margera was a part of Jackass from its debut in 2000, throughout its entire run on MTV and in the three movies. The native of West Chester, PA, also starred in the spinoff series Viva La Bam , which consisted largely of Margera and his friends playing elaborate pranks on his parents, April and Phil.
Since the end of the Jackass series, Margera has suffered a number of public setbacks, in addition to his substance abuse battles. He was devastated by the 2011 car accident death of his best friend and co-star Ryan Dunn, and was divorced from his first wife, Missy, the following year, although he remarried in 2013, leading to the birth of a son four years later. Margera’s uncle Vincent Margera, known on his shows as “Don Vito,” was found guilty of sexual assault on a minor in 2007; he died in 2015.
In a Vice interview in late 2017, Margera admitted that he had battled alcoholism as well as bulimia. He revealed that the start of his eating disorder had been a “Tequila Stuntman” bit he performed on the road with Steve-O, which required him to learn to vomit on command, something he soon began doing alone. He also admitted in that interview that he once ate an entire frozen pizza without cooking it, and admitted that he drank heavily following an injury that kept him from skating.
Also on his Instagram, Margera is offering a toy car pendent that should look familiar to anyone who has seen the first Jackass movie.