Edward Furlong's wild life – 'loads of heroin', meth and prison to gleaming new teeth

He was the teenage heartthrob whose fresh-faced good looks were wrecked by crippling drug and alcohol addictions.

But the good news is, as Edward Furlong turns 45 today (August 2) his story is finally turning into one of redemption as he celebrates a prolonged period of being clean and sober – and his dazzling new teeth.

Furlong was catapulted to superstardom overnight after being picked from obscurity to star opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991, when he was 13.

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But his career would hit the skids as he abused crystal meth and heroin in a devastating downward spiral.

The drugs also took their toll on his appearance, rotting away his gnashers and leaving him pale, drawn, bloated and unrecognisable from his youthful days in the media spotlight.

Furlong’s life began to spiral when he was in his teens – dabbling first with drinking, smoking weed and taking magic mushrooms.

It was a time when he said he “didn’t have too many people looking out for me and I was left to run wild.”

His youth had also been blighted by his mother and relatives fighting for custody over him and his new lucrative career.

By the time he was in his 20s, Furlong was taking drugs daily at ‘parties’ where cocaine and heroin were also added to the mix.

“When I was high, I had camaraderie with other people,” he told the Daly Mail.

“Just drinking and partying. All of a sudden, I felt like I was with people and I fit in somehow. That’s how it started.”

The troubled star scaled back the drug abuse in 2006 – around the time he married actress Rachael Bella and welcomed his son Ethan.

But while Furlong was able to kick his heroin addiction, his sobriety wasn’t to last.

Rachael filed for divorce in 2008 and obtained a restraining order against her ex.

They spent years feuding over child support payments and, behind the scenes, Furlong became hooked on meth and heroin again.

In January 2013 he spent 61 days in prison after being arrested for domestic battery against his then-girlfriend Monica Keena.

Arrested again in May that year, he avoided a jail sentence after agreeing to go to rehab for drug addiction and domestic violence counselling.

But on his release, unable to kick his habit, he admitted to “shooting loads and loads of heroin, meth and smoking DMT [a psychedelic drug] all the time”.

“That’s the way I was all day,” he told the Daily Mail.

“It’s amazing I’m still alive – there were a couple of close calls. I definitely OD’d but that’s the cycle, you know.

“Once you get in there, it’s so hard to see a way out.”

In 2016, he and a friend checked into a hotel in Ventura, a small town about 40 miles north of LA, with the intention of kicking heroin.

To get them through their withdrawal, the pair brought a bag of meth with them.

But when staff discovered syringes and evidence of drug use in their room, they called the police and Edward was arrested again.

“It was actually getting arrested for such a bulls*** thing that ended up getting me sober,” he said.

“It’s the bravest thing I’ve ever done in my life to not use. I’m not someone who likes to be controlled by anything or anyone and I didn’t want to be a slave to it any more.“

In 2020 Furlong sparked concern after being pictured with veteran porn star, Ron Jeremy, just a few months before the 69-year-old was indicted on multiple sexual assault charges. People called it the “saddest picture ever”.

But Furlong appears to have put his sad demise behind him and says he’s now been sober for four years.

As well as starring in a new movie called Charlie’s Horse, he says he has a “wonderful relationship” with his son.

The actor said as time goes on kicking his demons is getting “easier than I thought it would be” and people “like me better sober”.

Calling it the “greatest thing I’ve ever done”, he added: “Things are slowly turning around and I just want to get my life back to what it was.”

Regarding his teeth – Furlong’s natural choppers had mostly rotted away from the years of meth use and the only option was to replace them with implants.

“It sounds weird for me to be talking about teeth because I don’t live and breathe the way I look but every time I looked in the mirror, it just bummed me out as a reminder of what I had done for all those years.”

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk