Jamie Lee Curtis recently shared details of her past addictions, saying she's been sober for 20 years but was terrified for a long time that her secret would be revealed. Photo / Getty Images
Jamie Lee Curtis recently shared details of her past addictions, saying she's been sober for 20 years but was terrified for a long time that her secret would be revealed. Photo / Getty Images
Jamie Lee Curtis was "terrified" someone would make her addiction struggles public.
The 60-year-old actress got sober in 1999 after secretly becoming dependant on opioids for 10 years and though she only spoke out about her battle much later, she was worried someone she met in the "recovery community" would expose her.
She said: "I was terrified. 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.
"There are also ways for people to get recovery help privately. There are ways for people to understand that public figures need privacy in order to be able to disclose and talk about this shameful secret that has dogged and plagued them their whole lives."
The Halloween star is a "very careful sober person" who still attends meetings wherever she goes, even if she can't understand the local language, and if she can't find one, she simply sets one up for herself.
Curtis attends the Sixth Annual Dream Halloween Benefit for Children Affected by AIDS in 1999, the year she says she secretly entered rehab to beat her addiction to opioids. Photo / Getty Images
She told Variety's Recovery issue: "I am a very careful sober person. When I work, if there are no recovery meetings available, I make them...
"When I was in Charleston making Halloween, I was in a coffee shop near where I was living, and I met somebody in recovery, who told me, 'Oh, those two ladies out on the patio are sober too. There's a women's meeting near here.'
"I went out and introduced myself to the ladies, and a day later I was at a women's gathering 100 yards from where I was living. Literally 100 yards.
"When I was making The Tailor of Panama with Pierce Brosnan and John Boorman, I was swimming in the Gatun Dam, but on my day off, I found a recovery meeting that only spoke Spanish, didn't speak a word of English. I didn't understand a word anybody said, but I went and sat down and met people, shook hands and talked."
Curtis (R) with her Freaky Friday castmate Lindsay Lohan. Curtis says she was about nine months sober during filming and held a recovery meeting in her trailer every day. Photo / Getty Images
One of Jamie's "favourite groupings" was one she set up herself on the set of Freaky Friday.
She said: "I was probably about nine months sober when I made Freaky Friday. I put a big sign up by the catering truck, and it said, 'Recovery meeting in Jamie's trailer every day.'
"I left the door open and didn't know if anybody would show up. We ended up calling it the Mobile Home Recovery Meeting.
"It was probably my favourite grouping of sobriety that I've ever participated in.
"I've participated in groups all over the world, but there was something about the cross section of ages and genders and jobs and races, and it was profound."
