In a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club, Eric Benét broke down why he doesn’t consider himself as someone who suffered from sex addiction.
In 2002, the now-59-year-old R&B enrolled at a 35-day sex-addict rehabilitation program in Arizona. The “sex addict” tag followed him around for a lot of his career, but he wants to stress that he got the label because he had been unfaithful
"When I first went [to rehab], the definition was if you've ever been unfaithful in your primary relationship or a marriage? You got a sex addiction," Benét said. “I never felt like, and I still don’t feel like, I was or am an addict. … Basically, when it came down to it, I fucked up. I was dumb, I did stupid things, I was selfish. … If I got too much into the why I fucked up, it starts to feel like you’re deluding accountability for just being a stupid, selfish person.”
He also suggested the blanket term of “sex addict” could serve as an excuse to some for being selfish, and he wanted to take accountability for his actions instead of finding something to pin the blame on. “The first thing you gotta do when you fuck up in life is own it,” he added. “Take accountability.”
Benét doesn’t want to diminish what others have gone through, and agreed that aspects such as unexplored trauma could lead people to self-destructive or selfish behavior, but in many cases it’s the result of people dealing with things they weren’t “emotionally-prepared” for. “Own the fact that you did dumb shit and then you can do whatever you need to do, sit in the pain,” he continued. “Let me learn everything I can so I can grow and evolve.”
He added that he was “absolutely not” addicted to sex. He said he did “transcendantly dumb shit,” and took accountability for his actions and used it as an opportunity to grow.
Benét entered the Arizona facility while he was married to Halle Berry. They later separated in 2003, and finalized their divorce in 2005. He has since gotten married to Manuela Testolini, and they share two daughters together.
In 2005, he spoke with People and insisted that he wasn’t a sex addict. "We all know I cheated. It was out there. It's a betrayal. But I'm not a sex addict."
Berry also made a comment about the label in an appearance on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast in October 2024, but stopped short of naming Benét directly. "I had one husband who said he was a sex addict. But I don't fucking believe that shit,” she said.
