‘Home Improvement’ star Zachery Ty Bryan arrested for 6th time

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Troubled Home Improvement star Zachery Ty Bryan has been arrested for the sixth time in five years.

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The 44-year-old former child actor and his girlfriend, Johnnie Faye Cartwright, the mother of three of Bryan’s seven children, were both taken into custody and booked on Saturday in Oregon, according to court records reviewed by PEOPLE, Entertainment Weekly and other media outlets.

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Bryan, who played Brad Taylor on all eight seasons of ABC’s Home Improvement from 1991 to 1999 alongside Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson, is accused of violating his probation stemming from a prior conviction for domestic violence, while Cartwright has been slapped with five charges, including one count of driving under the influence, three counts of reckless endangering and one count of attempted first-degree assault.

According to TMZ, ahead of the weekend arrests, police responded to a reckless-endangering call at an Oregon campground in which Cartwright allegedly tried to run Bryan over.

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“Cartwright allegedly hit the gas, aimed the truck at him, and ended up crashing into a ditch with the kids still inside,” the outlet reported Monday.

Newest arrest marks the latest in a string of run-ins Bryan has had with the law

Back in January, Bryan was charged with second-degree domestic violence after an incident in South Carolina.

In a police report, which was obtained by PEOPLE on Jan. 6, a woman “stated that she was assaulted” by Bryan and that the two “live together and have children in common.”

The complainant told the officer that Bryan “choked her and punched her in the face multiple times.”

Bryan said their dispute started after the two “got into an argument about her drinking” and escalated when he “attempted to take the bottle from her.”

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In 2021, Bryan plead guilty to menacing and fourth-degree assault after a row with Cartwright the year before. Two years later, Bryan was in trouble again after he was booked for felony assault, third-degree robbery, and assault.

Then the following February, he was arrested for an alleged DUI and later the same year was booked again for driving under the influence and driving without a valid license.

Last month, an unnamed woman, which TMZ later reported was Cartwright, was granted a restraining order against Bryan after she made allegations to police that he physically and verbally abused her in July.

The woman claimed that Bryan threatened to kill her. “Shut the f*** up or I’m gonna shut you up,” he’s accused of saying.

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She also claimed he sprayed their dog in the face with bleach in June.

Bryan’s checkered past also includes prior DUI charges in 2004, 2007, and 2017.

‘I’ve struggled with the lasting effects of early fame’

Speaking to TMZ in November, Bryan said he’s on a “journey toward personal growth” and insisted that “domestic violence in any form is unacceptable.”

“The truth is, I’ve struggled with the lasting effects of early fame, addiction, and poor decision-making, which have hurt people I care about and led to repeated legal issues, including DUIs and past domestic incidents. This latest situation, involving a restraining order and serious accusations, has been a painful wake-up call,” he told the outlet.

After leaving Hollywood behind following supporting roles on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Boston Public, Center of the Universe, Veronica Mars, and 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Bryan tried to reinvent himself as a crypto investor.

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“No rich parents. No assistance. No handouts. No favours. No excuses. Straight hunger. Straight ambition. Straight hustle. If I want it, I’m gonna go get it. Period,” he tweeted in 2020.

But his life away from the screen was marred by brushes with the law.

Bryan claimed that the 2020 incident was “blown out of proportion” during a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“We didn’t even really get that physical,” he told the outlet. “We got really loud. We were screaming, and because we were in a townhome that had (thin walls), everybody could hear…. At the end of the day, (the police) throw a bunch of counts at you because they ultimately want you to plead to something.”

Bryan went on to call the 2020 arrest a wake-up call.

“I went through a situation that I’m sure plenty of people across the globe experience with their partners, and that was a learning experience,” he said.

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