Ron Howard shares 'regret' over brother's addiction

Ron Howard has spoken about the "regret" he has over his brother's addiction.

The filmmaker, 72, has told how his younger brother Clint, now 67, began experimenting with drugs and alcohol as a young adult.

"I had been really strictly controlled as a kid. My parents must have been worried about kidnapping and other things," Howard said in an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger.

"So I pushed mom and dad. To give him more freedom and more flexibility. And even when Clint was starting to smoke pot and things like that... I wasn't using any drugs, but I had really good friends who were and were highly functional and socially responsible about it. And I just I said, 'You know, this is not, it's not a nightmare. This is changing times, relax,' " he continued.

He revealed that in hindsight, he felt like "a voice kind of telling them to back off as parents," adding if they hadn't been so lenient, "they might have been able to do something." He admitted, "And so those are regrets that I have."

The Rush filmmaker said that looking back, "That was a difficult, heartbreaking time and thing to witness. It was terrifying, and I wasn't sure Clint was going to make it out. I don't think mom and dad were sure he was going to make it out."

After a couple of stints in rehab, something in Clint changed. "He found the will, himself, to live," he said, crediting their dad with helping him come out of his addiction.

"Dad really helped him turn that corner, once Clint decided. I think Dad did his very best parenting when Clint was 30 years old and in a lot of trouble. He found ways to sort of give him just enough money to live on and just enough space to feel autonomous, but with a lot of supervision." He added that it was an era of "tough love."