Arquette opens up about alcohol on Oprah

David Arquette, the estranged husband of "Cougar Town" star Courteney Cox, confessed to Oprah Winfrey Thursday that he had had his first beer at 4, was smoking pot at 8 and "seriously started drinking" at 12. "I probably realized I was an alcoholic, or had an inkling of it, when I was very young."

In his first interview since completing a 28-day program at the Betty Ford Center, where he had checked in last month for alcohol-abuse treatment, Arquette also expressed the desire for a marital reconciliation. "I'd love for it to work out," he told Winfrey.

"We truly love each other with all our hearts," he said. "Whether it's as friends or as husband and wife, I know that I'll be with her my whole life."

The couple, who have a daughter, Coco, 6, had announced in October that they had been separated "for some time."

"I love Courtney," Arquette, 39, told Winfrey. "I love her with all my heart. And you know, we're still working on ourselves."

In a taped segment, two of his sisters, actresses Patricia and Rosanna Arquette, described a chaotic childhood in which their character-actor father abused marijuana and alcohol. Their mother, Patricia said, "was abusive to us when we were little. . . . I mean, she choked me to the point once where I started blacking out."

Rosanna recalled, "She stabbed me in the arm with a knife. . . . Terrible physical abuse. . . . When you grow up in that kind of family . . . it affects everybody."

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David Arquette considers himself sober now, but added, "I have no misconception that I [can] drink or do drugs. And I don't want to. Not that I want to be the big poster boy because, you know, relapse is a reality."