July 21, 2020 | 11:44am | Updated July 21, 2020 | 12:27pm
Andrew Gillum, the once-rising Democratic star who narrowly lost the 2018 Florida governor’s race, has opened up for the first time since exiting public life and entering rehab.
Speaking in an 11-minute Instagram post Monday, the 40-year-old politician got candid about his struggles battling alcoholism and depression, which he says worsened significantly following his loss to now-Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I went away to rehab to focus on my issues with alcoholism, having grown up in a household where my father battled addiction to alcohol, and later died from that addiction. I knew well the toll it took on my father’s dreams and ambitions,” the former Tallahassee mayor said.
In March, Gillum was found inebriated inside a Miami Beach hotel room with another man who allegedly overdosed on crystal meth.
The once-rising political star was found vomiting in the bathroom of Mondrian South Beach while the other man was treated for a possible drug overdose. Officers found three baggies of crystal meth on the bed and hotel room floor at the time.
Within days, the former gubernatorial hopeful announced he would be withdrawing from politics to enter rehab.
“After conversation with my family and deep reflection, I have made the decision to seek help, guidance and enter a rehabilitation facility at this time,” Gillum said in a statement.
He admitted at the time that after his loss in the gubernatorial race, he “fell into a depression that has led to alcohol abuse.”
In his video on Monday, he addressed the impact of that loss further.
“I totally underestimated the impact that losing the race for governor had on my life, and on the way that those impacts started to show up in every aspect of my life,” he admitted, adding that he didn’t want to talk about the loss because it was a “constant reminder” of his own failure.
After the March hotel incident, Gillum said, the public shame weighed heavily on him, describing it as something that “cuts you.”
“My stuff had to be public and cause great embarrassment and rumors, some false, some true, the shame that I felt from all of that … was tearing me up. I needed real help to try to unpack that,” he added.
With Post wires
