Eric Nies reveals how The Real World saved his life in reunion clip: 'I might've been dead'
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Andy Cohen is reuniting the cast of The Real World: New York, the MTV series that helped put the reality TV genre on the map.
The Real World brought together a group of seven strangers who lived together in various cities, giving viewers an inside look at their daily lives, struggles, and achievements for 33 seasons. New York was the first of the franchise, starring Eric Nies, Heather Gardner, Andre Comeau, Kevin Powell, Becky Blasband, Julie Gentry, and Norman Korpi.
Cast members including Nies, Gentry, Korpi, and Gardner will reunite on Cohen's For Real: The Story of Reality TV on March 25 via E!.
"If The Real World didn't happen and my life didn't go where it did, I might've been dead," said Nies in a teaser for the episode (below). "There were a lot of wounds I was suppressing from my childhood and I was on a self-destructive path. I was using a lot of drugs at a young age. I was able to look at myself and see the things I didn't like about myself that I wanted to change. In a way, The Real World kind of saved my life."
Nies reveals further that as a child he was "physically, verbally, and sexually abused," which is why he sought out ways to heal himself. One of the treatments he sought on his journey was the use of ayahuasca, a controversial psychoactive brew from South America.
"If you've never done ayahuasca, you can go into your subconscious mind and access the files of your soul's existence in many, many lifetimes," he adds.
The reunion is only a sampling of what's ahead from the upcoming Paramount+ docuseries The Real World Homecoming: New York premiering March 4.
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