Ronnie Wood's 2010 Arrest and the Rock Bottom That Led to Sobriety

In July 2010, Ronnie Wood was arrested in London after a violent altercation with his then-girlfriend, 21-year-old Ekaterina Ivanova. He pleaded guilty to assault and received a 12-month community order plus a rehabilitation requirement. The arrest was the public climax of a decade-long spiral fueled by heavy drinking and cocaine use—Wood later admitted he was consuming two bottles of vodka a day and mixing it with blow, describing himself at the time as “a complete mess.”

The turning point came not from the arrest itself but from a heart-to-heart with his eldest son, Jesse Wood, who told him he was sick of watching his father destroy himself. Wood checked into The Priory rehab clinic shortly after the 2010 incident and later credited his new wife, Sally Humphreys (whom he married in 2012), with giving him a reason to stay clean. He quit alcohol entirely and switched to non-alcoholic beer, maintaining sobriety by staying busy with the Rolling Stones’ touring schedule and his own painting. He’s been clean ever since, saying in a 2021 interview that he didn’t miss drinking one bit.