In November 2012, following the publication of his biography "Geen genade" (English: "No Mercy"), Van der Meyde gave a series of media interviews, including with "The Times" in England, in which he admitted to a long term series of personal problems: after a difficult first year in Milan he spent a long time on the bench in his second year, and began drinking. Offered the chance to join AS Monaco at the end of the season his wife, who liked to keep animals, rejected the prospect of living in an apartment, so he moved to Everton. Injured upon arriving, he played regularly for a period after regaining fitness, before getting injured against Manchester United; in rehabilitation for six months, after his newly born daughter was hospitalised for an equal period, he again turned to alcohol.