Scott Baio has clarified comments he made about his former “Happy Days” costar Erin Moran on live radio, saying that he now truly understands “the meaning of ‘Fake News.’”
“I was asked ONLY about Erin’s troubled past due to drug & alcohol abuse,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday. “I was still upset and said I felt that living that kind of a lifestyle will catch up with you and nothing good would come of it.
THIS WAS BEFORE THE CAUSE OF DEATH WAS ANNOUNCED STATING STAGE 4 CANCER.”
The actor, who also starred opposite Moran on spinoff hit “Joanie Loves Chachi,” said that media wants to “paint a different picture of me and what really happened,” and begged people to “stop assuming the worse in me.”
“This is so wrong! Now I truly understand the meaning of ‘Fake News.’ This is crazy,” he wrote. “Please stop assuming the worse in me. I’m a compassionate person. I’m very heartbroken over her passing, especially since it was cancer. I don’t see people going after or attacking every network that said it was a drug overdose.”
On Monday, the actor told WABC radio, “For me, you do drugs or drink, you’re gonna die,” but the official cause of death was later confirmed on Monday as “complications of stage 4 cancer.”
The 56-year-old actor also said he was a “little shocked but not completely shocked that this happened” after news broke Saturday that Moran had died in her in Indiana home.
Moran was found unresponsive in her Corydon, Indiana, home on Saturday. She was 56.
“The Internet and television stations were blasting headlines ‘Erin Moran died due to a heroine overdose,’” he wrote in his Facebook post. “This made me very upset and angry. This is one of my worse fears for her, or anyone else. Especially in this business. I was on an emotional rollercoaster. I hadn’t slept well since the news of her passing.”
The late actress had battled with drug dependency and depression for many years. Toxicology test results are still pending, but no illegal narcotics were found at her home.
See his Facebook post below.
