Jamie Lee Curtis recently revealed a scary truth about her struggles with substance abuse decades ago.
The 59-year-old actress opened up to People Magazine that she’s lucky to have survived the 1980s because she struggled with a serious opiate addiction in her younger years. Curtis said she was prescribed painkillers following a minor surgery in 1989 and promptly became addicted for several years after. (RELATED: There Are More Details About Ben Affleck’s Addiction Issues. They’re Very Disturbing)
Curtis revealed she’d seen addiction firsthand growing up. Her father, actor Tony Curtis, struggled with an alcohol, cocaine and heroin addiction. And her half-brother, Nicholas, died of a heroin overdose in 1994.
“I was ahead of the curve of the opiate epidemic,” the actress said of her dark period. “I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving. No one knew. No one.”
But now that she’s clean, Curtis is working to fight the opiate crisis.
“I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family,” she said. “Getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment … bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children and bigger than any work, success, failure. Anything.”