Balthazar Getty, the American actor who made headlines for his controversial extramarital affair with actress Sienna Miller, has said that the affair strengthened his marriage.

In a revealing interview with the Evening Standard, the actor-turned-DJ spoke up about his 16-year marriage and how he turned his life around.

Despite still being married to Rosetta, the mother of his four children, whom he married in 2000, the oil magnate had a fling with British actress Sienna in 2008.

Balthazar and his fashion designer wife split up for two years after the adultery scandal, but they eventually reunited and have recently rekindled their relationship.

Balthazar confirms to the media that the encounter is “ancient history” and “another lifetime.”

“Without going down, you can’t rise again,” he says.

Balthazar would not comment further on the matter, but he previously praised his “understanding” wife for doing what is best for their children.

In 2010, he told America’s Harper’s Bazaar magazine, “Here’s the bottom line: It was a very challenging time for everybody involved. But I loved and missed my family too much not to make it work. Rosetta is understanding enough and spiritual enough to let us try.”

Balthazar, 41, said it took him until he was 40 to feel like he’d carved out his own identity as a member of one of America’s wealthiest and most prominent families, the Gettys.

“I’ve gotten more comfortable with who I am, where I come from, and being ‘a Getty’,” he says. “I don’t see it anymore as something I need to run from, or prove to people that I’m not who they might perceive me to be. I’ve been able to own that and feel good about it.”

He goes on to say that his family’s history of addiction, mixed with his celebrity, contributed to his own difficulties.

‘It’s no secret that my father and grandfather had major drug addiction problems, and addiction runs rampant in many families. If you add wealth and celebrity on top of that, it can be lethal,’ he explains, admitting he took ‘too many’ drugs in his ‘search for higher consciousness.’

Prior to his career as a DJ and producer, he was a member of the band Ringside, which was signed to Interscope Records ten years ago.

‘Jimmy Iovine, the most powerful guy in the music industry, basically anointed us as the next big thing. But we got dropped because of everything going on with the internet,’ he stated.

He claimed that his wife gave him pro tools and a digital recording studio two years ago so that he could record his own album after he locked himself in his pool home.