Carre Otis has urged her ex-husband Mickey Rourke to let go of the emotional "baggage" surrounding their failed marriage because he will never be able to move on if he continues to stir up old feelings.
The actors wed in 1992 after co-starring in Wild Orchid, but their tumultuous relationship was rocked by allegations of domestic abuse and Otis' heroin addiction, which led to their divorce six years later.
In 2008, Rourke confessed he had never fully recovered from the split, despite their difficult partnership, admitting that he had resigned himself to a life of meaningless trysts because he would never be able to match the powerful love he had found with Otis.
He said, "I waited 10 years for her to come back... I won't compromise. Carre was thunder and lightning. If I can't have thunder and lighting then I won't have anything. It'll be a one-night stand here and there, but I'm not going to compromise. I can't."
Otis reveals she was furious with her ex's comments because she had just started a family with her second husband, environmental scientist Matthew Sutton - but her anger soon turned to pity because she realised the only person Rourke was hurting was himself.
Appearing on U.S. newsman Anderson Cooper's new talk show on Tuesday (11Oct11), Otis says, "It (Rourke's comments) was totally inappropriate. I'm a wife and a mother of two little girls today and I have done so much work (to heal emotionally) and that was so long ago. And for me it just felt like, really a testament to his evolution, and (he should) just let it go.
"His star (in Hollywood) is rising and it should rise, and he doesn't need to bring up a bunch of old stuff. It doesn't benefit him; it doesn't serve him well to carry that baggage any longer."
And Otis insists she has nothing but praise for the achievements he's made in his movie career.
She adds: "I'm thrilled with Mickey for his success... Everybody deserves success, everybody deserves happiness... We all deserve to heal and get well and that comes from a really genuine place in myself."
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