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Bam Margera sends update from rehab: ‘I’m 39 years old, the party is over’

He writes on Instagram that he'd 'like to join the sober parade.'

When Bam Margera's best friend and fellow Jackass star Ryan Dunn, (in painting right) died in a fiery crash in West Goshen Township in 2011, he went into a deep, downward spiral. No one would ever argue that the West Chester resident had it all together, but he was making money and having fun, supposedly, living the perpetual Peter Pan life. It turns out that through much of Jackass, Bam was bulimic and drinking heavily and all of that got much worse after Dunn's death. He drank, a lot, got beat up and caused a scene wherever he went. Today he's lost weight, remarried and having a baby, and he's fallen back in love with skateboarding, the hobby that led him to fame from the beginning. CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer
When Bam Margera's best friend and fellow Jackass star Ryan Dunn, (in painting right) died in a fiery crash in West Goshen Township in 2011, he went into a deep, downward spiral. No one would ever argue that the West Chester resident had it all together, but he was making money and having fun, supposedly, living the perpetual Peter Pan life. It turns out that through much of Jackass, Bam was bulimic and drinking heavily and all of that got much worse after Dunn's death. He drank, a lot, got beat up and caused a scene wherever he went. Today he's lost weight, remarried and having a baby, and he's fallen back in love with skateboarding, the hobby that led him to fame from the beginning. CHARLES FOX / Staff PhotographerRead moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Bam Margera is sticking with sobriety about a week into his third stay in an alcohol rehabilitation center, the former Jackass star says.

Margera, 39, announced on New Year’s Eve that he would enter rehab for the third time since the death of friend Ryan Dunn, who died in a drunk-driving crash in 2011. At the time, Margera wrote that he hoped “the term 3rd time is a charm is true.” Now, in a handwritten note posted to Instagram, Margera says he is “sick of people thinking I’m drunk, crazy or f- up,” and that he would “like to join the sober parade.”

“I have spent enough time grieving over Ryan Dunn through alcohol,” Margera wrote. “I am 39 years old, the party is over. I don’t plan on drinking anymore.”

In a separate video, Margera indicated he is staying in a rehab center in California’s Bay Area. As he wrote in another handwritten post, rules at the facility appear to be strict, leaving Margera with only “thoughts and a pen.”

Terms, the post read, include Margera staying off the internet, not being able to go to outside Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with his rehab group, and not taking “important calls from important people,” as well as being prohibited from communicating with his wife, Nicole Boyd, and son, Phoenix Wolf, via Facetime.

“My eyes hurt from reading, my wrist hurts from writing, cause there is nothing else to do,” Margera wrote.

This most recent stay in rehab for Margera comes following weeks of erratic behavior online that culminated in mid-December with a massive party at the pro skater’s West Chester property known as Castle Bam. As part of the event, Margera sent an open invitation to fans to visit the home and tear down a skatepark to make way for a new one designed by fellow pro skater Danny Way. Margera appeared to be intoxicated at the event.

Following the party, Margera continued posting handwritten messages online, including some that indicated he had broken up with his wife “because that was always the plan.” Additionally, Margera turned his attention to friend Brandon Novak, a former heroin addict turned motivational speaker and author, claiming Novak has been “too busy for me” over the last few years. Margera later thanked Novak, as well as fellow Jackass stars Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville, for helping arrange his current stay in rehab.

Margera’s alcoholism has been highly publicized since 2016, when he appeared on VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, on which he detailed his experiences with drinking. In 2017, he discussed his addiction to alcohol in depth as part of Vice’s Epicly Later’d series, saying that drinking caused him to develop bulimia in his 20s. That year, Margera also discussed with the Inquirer the role Dunn’s death had on his drinking.

"I didn't know what I was doing for a long time, but I went into a deep downward spiral once that happened," Margera told the Inquirer in 2017. "Waking up instantly to a beer was normal for a long time."

Currently, Margera’s Castle Bam property is being renovated to be used as an AirBnB location, his mother, April, told the Inquirer last year. The property has not yet been listed on the rental service’s website.

“He went to rehab, and he has embraced sobriety,” April said last year. “We’re really proud of him. He’s moving forward, and he takes it one day at a time.”