Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter Leave Drew Barrymore Stunned Tearfully Discussing His Alcoholism

The couple emotionally share how Jason Ritter's struggles with alcohol affected their relationship.

Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter are total couple goals, but the spouses admit that their love story had a few bumps in the road.

While on The Drew Barrymore Show, the couple was candid about how Ritter's struggles with alcohol impacted their relationship.

Noting that they first got to know each other on the set of 2013's The Big Ask, 45-year-old Lynskey shared that they were both filming the movie at a tough time in their personal lives.

"We were both going through very difficult times in our lives. We were both going through breakups," Lynskey shared. "It was a very tumultuous time."

Ritter, 43, added that though he knew Lynskey was "incredible" early on, but he didn't feel worthy of her due to his issues with alcohol.

"It's not as cute of a story as you would like to think. It was messy and interesting and weird," he shared of their early romance. "In the mix, I was dealing with some alcoholism issues. At a point, I knew how amazing she was, and I thought she would be incredible for someone, someone who deserved her, basically, and I didn't feel like I was that person. I felt a little bit too crazy."

Ritter said that it took working on his sobriety to get him to a place where he felt worthy of Lynskey.

"It was only after a year into not drinking that I go, 'Oh, maybe I can promise some things to someone else,'" he shared as both he and Lynskey teared up. "So I knew that she was incredible. It was working on myself to think that maybe I could be the one for her too."

Lynskey held her husband's hand, wiping away tears and saying proudly, "He worked so hard. He did so much work on himself. I'm so proud of him."

She noted that they were in couples' therapy "three weeks after we met each other," and "we just kept growing."

Lynskey admired how her husband is always willing to dive into the difficult topics, calling him "so present, wanting to have the conversation and so willing to take responsibility."

She shared that the moment she knew he was "the one" happened when she had an elderly dog that required a lot of assistance.

"Jason would get up with her every single time, take her outside, go back to sleep, get up and take her outside. And I think that's when I was like, 'I could have a child with this man. I could really do this.' The infinite patience and kindness and love," she recalled. "I was like, 'I think this is a good person.'"

Host Barrymore was clearly stunned and moved by the couple's confession, noting that her own struggles with alcohol have left her feeling like she couldn't date. 

Lynskey and Ritter tied the knot in 2020 and share a 3-year-old daughter.

Earlier this month, Lynskey gushed about her husband to ET, saying, "I feel so fortunate. I don't have anything to complain about, you know? I've had a lot of great happy times in my life, Jason is the greatest human being, I love our daughter, I love the show [Yellowjackets]. Everything's coming together in a way that [makes me] feel so fortunate."

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