Actor Tim Allen has spoken up about his former Home Improvement costar, Zachery Ty Bryan.
Bryan has been arrested several times in the past few years and has faced charges for multiple DUIs and domestic violence.
Allen referred to Bryan as a "complex man," telling The Hollywood Reporter that he had been a "great kid."
Allen said he didn't know what was going on with Bryan.
"All you can do is step aside and let somebody go through their process," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "At a certain point, he deviated from the guy I know to somebody who is reacting to situations that I had nothing to do with and can’t control. I don’t know what happens when people get corrupted. You just don’t know."
Many of the issues in Bryan's life became public a few years ago.
In 2020, Bryan was arrested for allegedly strangling a 27-year-old woman.
"An investigation found that during the dispute Bryan is reported to have assaulted the victim, impeded her breathing, and taken the victim’s phone from her when she tried to call 911," a statement from a spokesperson said, according to People.
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Bryan later pleaded guilty to two domestic violence charges. They were misdemeanors.
He has also been accused of fraud. According to The Hollywood Reporter, four sources claim that Bryan was involved in a "fraudulent scheme" and stole money from them — about $50,000.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that one source attempted to contact Bryan about their money, but the person who texted back, claiming to not be Bryan, wrote: "He changed his number months ago. Sorry. And he owes, like, tons of people money. Hope you’re not one of them."
He allegedly tricked people into investing in cryptocurrency.
One of the people who gave Bryan money was someone he met on the Bumble dating app.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Courtney Ledford, who he matched with on Bumble, went out to dinner with Bryan and transferred $5,000 to him. She said she signed a contract on Docusign and Bryan told her he would send her a digital wallet for her and her family.
Bryan addressed the issues and accusations in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter.
"This was not me running some shady scam deal or something — that’s just not me," he told the publication. "What people don’t understand is that you take risks. Nothing is for sure. It’s the same with movie investments and everything else, you lose or you win.”
He also addressed the domestic violence charges, saying they "got so blown out of proportion."
Bryan allegedly punched the woman in the face, pulled her hair and choked her after reportedly waking her up to asking about his cellphone charging cables.
The two of them had been in a "sexually intimate" relationship for two years, and had been seeing each other when Bryan was still married.
Bryan claims that the woman was the one who woke him up and "wanted to ruin his career."
"We didn’t even really get that physical. We got really loud. We were screaming and because we were in a townhome that had [thin walls], everybody could hear. Johnnie was, at the time, just really upset about my situation. At the end of the day, [the police] throw a bunch of counts at you because they ultimately want you to plead to something," he told The Hollywood Reporter.
He referred to the situation as a "learning experience."
He also admitted that he has a drinking problem, though he doesn't call himself an alcoholic. He said he started drinking when he was 14 years old.
"I try to stay away from it. I’ve just kind of disengaged. I’ve got my routine, I’m not going out and getting lit, and that takes away a lot of problems.”
