The actress, 64, reflected on her history with opioid addiction on the Morning Joe, revealing that she felt “incredibly lucky” for managing to overcome it 24 years ago.
During the interview, Curtis opened up about how her darkest moments went almost unnoticed by others. “My worst day was almost invisible to anyone else,” she admitted.
“I’m lucky. I didn’t make terrible decisions high or under the influence that then, for the rest of my life, I regret,” she revealed. “There are women in prison whose lives have been shattered by drugs and alcohol, not because they were violent felons, not because they were horrible people, but because they were addicts.”
She added: “I am incredibly lucky that that wasn’t my path.”
Sobriety brought clarity and a new perspective for the Oscar-winning actress, who admitted to being an opiate addict who enjoyed the “opiate buzz.” She also revealed “if fentanyl was available, as easily available as it is today on the street, I’d be dead.”
Her addiction persisted until 1999, during which she lived a double life of stealing and scheming without anyone being aware. Though, she has since said that her journey to sobriety has been her greatest achievement, allowing her to lead an “incredible life.”
Curtis said her sobriety has been “the key to freedom, the freedom to be me, to not be looking in the mirror in the reflection and trying to see somebody else.”
Jamie Lee Curtis got candid about her previous opioid addiction and her journey to sobriety 24 years ago.Credit / Rodin Eckenroth / Getty.
She continued: “I look in the mirror. I see myself. I accept myself. And I move on because you know what? The world is filled with things we need to do. I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family.”
Curtis suffered the devastating loss of her brother Nicholas, who died after overdosing on heroin when he was 21. Her father, actor Tony Curtis, also struggled with alcohol and drug abuse.
“Getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment,” she admitted. “Bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children and bigger than any work, success, failure. Anything.”
