Antonio Banderas absent for part of Melanie's battle with addiction

Actors Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith have been married for 15 years and while they look happy, it's been a long road. Both agree that their love is strong, but they differ on a darker aspect of their marriage -- Melanie's addictions -- and just how much involvement he has in her recovery.

In an interview for the November issue of AARP The Magazine, the recent ALMA Award winner and his wife viewed how their family handles Melanie's alcohol and drug addiction quite differently, especially Antonio.

He told the magazine, "We've never hidden it. We've been very open about addictions in the case of Melanie."

The actor said the toughest part has been the "pretending" that happens when their children -- they have a daughter together, Stella, who will be 15 on September 24, -- and Alexander, 26, and daughter, Dakota, 21, became inquisitive, creating a "very dark place" for the kids and the marriage.

Banderas, 51, also said that he has supported his wife through her third and most recent stint in rehab two years ago. "We did all the therapies together," the actor said about his and their childrens' participation.

Melanie, however, had a different tale to tell about her husband's involvement, saying, "I'm sorry to say, that's in his mind. ... I started on pain pills when I hurt my knee skiing and just kept taking them. The kids knew; Dakota and Stella called me on it. Antonio was in London at the time. I went away to rehab for three months; it took 10 days just to detox. We had two family weeks there, but we didn't follow through."

The 54-year-old actress defended Antonio saying that he's as supportive as he can be without understanding her battle with alcohol and drugs, and how it runs deep in her family.

"Antonio was supportive to the extent that he can be, but if you're not an alcoholic or drug addict, and you find out that your wife is a bad one, it's hard to deal with. ... I wish he would go to a meeting with me or to Al-Anon, but it's very foreign to him. Addiction runs in my family but not in his.

"I don't mean that against him. I would like him to do more, but it's a difficult thing to have happen in any family, and in that way he has been totally by my side. He really is the greatest guy."