Actor and professing Christian Terry Crews recalled a time of celibacy that helped both save his marriage and kick his addiction to pornography.
Crews told Entertainment Tonight that he and his wife, Rebecca, went on a “90-day sex fast” to help him overcome a porn addiction that was tearing his marriage apart.
“We did it together. Rebecca was right there and she actually regrouped with me,” he said. “I went on a 90-day sex fast [with] her. And people were like, ‘Whoa, that’s crazy!”
“What was so beautiful about that, was it took me to a time when I was 12 years old and I liked a girl and I didn’t know anything about sex,” he continued. “But all I did was give her a flower and say, ‘I like you for who you are.’ And it wasn’t about sex. It took us back to those moments.”
The former NFL player said it felt like he was 12 years old again “because sex had been taken out of the equation and it was all about love again.”
Crews is outspoken about his past porn addiction, which began at nine years old. He kept it a secret from his wife for almost 20 years, and it nearly destroyed their marriage. Today, the couple uses their experience to help others.
“My wife knew something was wrong because we kept getting farther and farther apart,” he said. “When she addressed me and finally put the question to me, ‘What is it that I don’t know about you, Terry Crews?”
Rebecca Crews did not judge her husband, but she also set a firm boundary and told him if he did not change, she would divorce him.
“She always said, ‘I love you; this is why I have to leave you.’ That was the whole [thing],” he explained. “It wasn’t judgmental; it was always like, ‘I love you too much to even stay with you right now.’”
“It was so deep, and I was like, ‘If she can make these kinds of statements to me, then how could I not do the work?’” he added.
Celibacy, along with therapy, was the best decision for them because it put Crews on the path to overcoming his addiction.
“I couldn’t believe it. It was the best,” Crews maintained. “At first, I was like, ‘This this is gonna be horrible.’ It was the best thing that we had ever done.”
In 2016, Crews posted a video on Facebook admitting that his obsession with X-rated content ended the marriage at the time.
“It changes the way you think about people. People become objects,” he said. “It affected everything. I didn’t tell my wife … didn’t tell my friends. Nobody knew. But the internet allowed that little secret to just stay and grow. It was something that my wife was literally like, ‘I don’t know you anymore. I’m out of here.’”
“Pornography really, really messed up my life in a lot of ways,” the actor continued.
Crews recently penned a book, Tough: My Journey to True Power. It’s an autobiography that details his darkest moments, his relationship with his mother and how he got into acting.
Researchers have found that Crews’ experience is the norm for porn users. A 2018 study found that porn and loneliness fuel each other in a “vicious cycle.”
Rebecca Crews previously shared that her husband’s porn addiction also led to infidelity in their marriage.
“We understand the Bible says lust is never satisfied. So when you toy with something like addiction to porn, it’s going to lead you to other places,” she said.
“He begged me, begged me not to leave him,” Rebecca revealed. But she did let him go for a time. After they separated, Crews brought his issues before God and got help. His wife eventually forgave him and took him back.
“Had I not seen the effort on his part, I could have not been forgiving. … I’m very proud of him. I’m very thankful that he made the choice to deal with demons and to save our family because we need him.”