Source: Photo courtesy of Tamron Hall / Disney–ABC Domestic Television
Andrew Gillum, former Democratic Party nominee for governor of Florida, is set to speak for the first time about the March 2020 scandal that turned his life upside down.
It was reported that the young politician, a married father of three, was found extremely intoxicated in a hotel room in Miami Beach. He was found in this state alongside two other men, one of which suffering from an overdose. The individual who overdosed was said to be a gay male escort who claimed that he and Gillum were friends. It also didn’t help that bags of crystal meth were found in the room, and that there were also photos that surfaced online of what appeared to be the politician naked and passed out in the space.
Gillum maintained that he simply had too much to drink after attending a wedding in the area, but would go into rehab following the incident. He revealed that after he lost the gubernatorial race in 2018, he started to struggle with his drinking and that alcoholism runs in his family.
“Since my race for governor ended, I fell into a depression that has led to alcohol abuse,” he said in a statement. “I witnessed my father suffer from alcoholism and I know the damaging effects it can have when untreated.”
Now out of rehab and still married to wife Jai, the couple are set to speak on the controversy that engulfed their family in an interview with Tamron Hall. In a preview of it obtained by PEOPLE, Gillum shares that things got so bad in regards to all the conversation surrounding what did and didn’t happen in that hotel room that he didn’t know if he wanted to live.
“The truth is that, Tamron, everyone believes the absolute worst about that day,” he said. “At this stage, I don’t have anything else to have to conceal. I literally got broken down to my most bare place; to the place where I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to live, not because of what I had done but because of everything that was being said about me.”
He is also set to talk about his rehabilitation experience, losing his luster in the public eye and how he “cried every day” at one point. Jai will also speak on the impact the situation had on their marriage and what’s next for the couple.
The interview is set to air on Monday, September 14 as part of The Tamron Hall Show‘s Season 2 premiere week.
