Californication star addicted to sex

Reuters

KEEP IT PRIVATE: David Duchovny has entered a rehab clinic for a sex addiction and has pleaded for privacy.

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X-Files star David Duchovny, who plays a womanising writer on the controversial television series Californication, has entered a facility for treatment of sex addiction.

Duchovny, 48, sprang to fame starring as the conspiracy-minded FBI agent Fox Mulder on Fox network's paranormal thriller The X-Files, which spawned two big-screen spinoffs - one of which screened in theatres recently.

He has been married since 1997 to actress Tea Leoni, with whom he has a nine-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son.

"I have voluntarily entered a facility for the treatment of sex addiction," he said in a statement released through his lawyer, Stanton "Larry" Stein.

"I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family."

There were no further details in the statement, which was first reported on People.com.

In January, Duchovny won a Golden Globe Award as best comic actor for playing an oversexed single dad and novelist struggling with writer's block in the Showtime series Californication.

The first episode of the series caused controversy in New Zealand over a dream sequence involving a sex act with a nun.

Advertisers pulled out of the show, which screened on TV3, after labelling it 'porn'.

- Reuters