As he nears a major sobriety milestone, skateboard icon and former reality star Ryan Sheckler gushed about his most recent journey: fatherhood.
Sheckler, 35, and his wife, Abigail Baloun — who he married in March 2022 — are parents to daughters Olive, 2, and Lilah, 8 months. As Sheckler prepares to celebrate five years of sobriety on March 30, he’s grateful for all that family life has offered him.
“It’s just the best,” Sheckler exclusively told Us Weekly at the Newport Beach Celebrity Classic on Sunday, March 16. “I’ve been married to my wife for three years now. Our daughter, Olive, was born on our one-year wedding anniversary, so we share that special day with our daughter and me and my wife.”
That’s not to say that Sheckler’s new chapter hasn’t come with its fair share of challenges.
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“It’s just some of those things where you just have to do it,” he said of his journey as a father. “There’s no choice. You got to do it. And I’ve never been scared of work. I have some of the biggest belly laughs I’ve ever had in my life watching my daughter learn, watching my little one fall off the couch a little bit, just how they tuck and roll.”
Sheckler said there’s pressure that comes with “being in charge of what they learn and how they learn at a very young age.”
“It’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s something that I take very seriously,” he added. “I absolutely love it.”
Sheckler entered rehab for alcohol addiction in 2016 and worked for years to live a life of sobriety. He now celebrates March 30 as his sober anniversary, which is a decision he now calls “a no-brainer.”
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“For me, early on in the program, the more things that are positive that you can put in between yourself and in my case, the drink, you can fill in the blank for whatever you are going through,” the former Life of Ryan star told Us. “I have so many people and so many great things in between me and another drink that if I was even thinking about drinking, I have to go through 10 different steps of, ‘I’m gonna have to explain it to this person. I’m gonna have to explain it to this group of 30 dudes that rely on me every Monday night to open the door so that they can get some healing.’”
Sheckler now works to pay his sobriety journey forward through the 12 Step program that changed the course of his life.
“I’m trying to take other kids through it,” he said. “This program was so freely given to me, and this way of living was freely given and I’m trying to freely give it back. It’s really fun to see the miracles. You see the miracles happen really fast. When someone has had enough and decides to get sober and really follows through with the 12 Step program, you watch their life dramatically change quickly.”
With reporting by Mike Vulpo
