Bret Easton Ellis revealed his longtime boyfriend was committed to a psychiatric ward last week after being arrested for burglary.
The “American Psycho” author issued a lengthy statement on his website Tuesday to “provide some clarification and perspective” after police said his partner, Todd Michael Schultz, entered a neighbor’s apartment in West Hollywood, Calif., and ransacked her things.
“For a long time I was simply blind, not grasping the severity of Todd’s situation and how ill he actually was,” he began.
Ellis, 59, explained that Schultz, 37, had been struggling with his mental health and drug addiction “for the last decade,” culminating in “a full blown drug-induced psychotic breakdown” that led to his Feb. 13 arrest.
“[Schultz] is now in lockdown in a psych ward still, days later, unaware of where he is or why he’s there,” the “Shards” writer shared.
Ellis noted that he first realized the severity of Schultz’s “out-of-control” behavior in 2021 when he kicked his beau out of their condo and “demanded he place himself in a recovery facility for three and a half months, which he did — grudgingly.”
However, the Literary Brat Pack member ultimately realized he was not helping Schultz’s situation by strong-arming him into treatment.
“Todd had always been someone who I thought was eccentric and erratic but functioning,” Ellis wrote. “Due to our age difference we lived semi-separate lives even though we lived together — he had his life and I had mine and they would intersect for long conversations about books, watching movies, having meals. I often wasn’t aware that there was another Todd.”
The New York Times bestselling author said Schultz “was OK” in early 2022 after leaving rehab, “but then ‘something’ started creeping back in” last year.
“The mania — caused by both mental health issues and drugs — finally blew up in OUR faces,” he wrote. “Yes, I had heard from people earlier, years earlier, that Todd was becoming a problem. But I was also a problem by deflecting and not taking action, lost in my own world.”
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Ellis assured his fans that Schultz “has a support team” and “will automatically be placed into a long term dual psychiatric-rehab facility” once he is released from the psych ward.
“I don’t think it’s too late for him and I hope to know that Todd I first met in 2010 again,” he concluded.
The “Less Than Zero” scribe previously told the New York Times that Schultz had mistakenly walked into the wrong apartment and was not attempting a burglary.
Ellis also expressed his hope that the charge would be reduced to trespassing, as he described his boyfriend’s episode as nonviolent.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
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