Jamie Lee Curtis Details Alcoholism and How Plastic Surgery Led to a Painkiller Addiction

From Country Living

• Jamie Lee Curtis recently opened up about what led to her painkiller addiction and her struggles with alcoholism.

• The Freaky Friday actress also talked about sharing drugs with her father, Tony Curtis, who struggled with cocaine, heroin, and alcohol addiction.

• Jamie Lee was featured in Variety magazine's "Recovery Issue."

For Variety's 2019 "Recovery Issue," Jamie Lee Curtis is celebrating 20 years of being sober.

In the magazine, the True Lies actress shares that a cameraman's comments about her "puffy eyes" prompted her to seek plastic surgery treatment in her 20s, which ultimately led to her 10-year-long painkiller addiction.

"It came around to my coverage in the scene, and [the cameraman] said, 'I’m not shooting her today. Her eyes are too puffy.' I was so mortified and so embarrassed," Jamie said, while adding that doctors gave her Vicodin after her surgery, even though it "wasn't really painful."

Jamie Lee also recalls in the interview that she used to be a "wildly controlled addict and alcoholic," noting that "no one knew" about her addiction and that she never did it while working. After reading Tom Chiarella's 1999 essay "Vicodin, My Vicodin" in Esquire though, she was inspired to seek help and sobriety. Still, while she attended recovering meetings, the fear that someone would sell her story to the tabloids lingered.

"I was just terrified that someone in the recovery community was going to betray my trust. But it is my experience that that doesn’t really happen and that my fear was unfounded," she explained to the outlet.

Meanwhile, Jamie Lee recognized that her own father, Some Like It Hot actor Tony Curtis, was also struggling with addiction — though, he turned to alcohol, cocaine, and heroin. Jamie Lee's brother, Nicholas, died of a heroin overdose in 1994. Tony died from cardiac arrest in 2010 at 85.

"I knew my dad had an issue because I had an issue and he and I shared drugs ... I did cocaine and freebased once with my dad. But that was the only time I did that, and I did that with him," she revealed.

Thankfully, Jamie Lee has now been sober for two decades, which she attributes to being "very careful." She'll ask hotels to remove mini bars before she checks in and attend frequent recovery meetings when she needs them. As she puts it, "I bring sobriety with me."

If you or someone you know is suffering from substance or alcohol abuse, call the free, confidential Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

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