E! News is reporting that actor David Duchovny has checked into rehab to seek treatment for sex addiction.

The 48-year-old star of the former cult hit TV series, “The X Files” and the recent Showtime cable network hit series “Californication” released a statement yesterday through his attorney on the matter. “I have voluntarily entered a facility for the treatment of sex addiction,” the statement read. “I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family.”

Duchovny has been married to actress Téa Leoni since May 1997. Together they have a nine-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son. E! News was quick to point out the irony in the fact that Duchovny won a Golden Globe this year for his role as an over-sexed struggling writer on the “Californication” cable series.

In a statement to E! News, Richard Licata, Showtime’s executive VP of Corporate Communications expressed the network’s support for Duchovny. “All of us at Showtime wish David and his family the best during this very private time,” said Licata.

This is not the first time that David Duchovny has dealt with the matter of sex addiction publicly. In an interview with Playgirl Magazine in 1997, the actor claimed– “I’m not a sex addict. I have never been to those meetings. It’s hurtful to my family and if I was involved with a woman in a monogamous relationship, it would be hurtful to her,” is how Duchovny addressed the issue.

In May of 1998 Téa Leoni addressed the same issue in an interview with Elle Magazine. “David was accused of being a sex addict,” Leoni said while having been married to Duchovny for a year at the time. “Which I always found very exciting. And then I found out it wasn’t true.”

“Men are like bulls,” Leoni continued in the Elle interview. “They gotta get the new cow. Maybe you’ve got to get the bull after he’s had a lot of cows, so you might just be the last new one.”

The second season of “Californication” premiers September 28.