RuPaul is lifting the sequined curtain on his life as he opens up about his previous wrestle with substance abuse in his new memoir, ‘The Home of Hidden Meanings.’
Whereas RuPaul has damaged obstacles and challenged norms — all whereas sporting six-inch heels — a part of his e book uncovers the struggles he confronted lengthy earlier than discovering fame.
TV Persona Discusses His Former Drug Dependancy
In an excerpt obtained by TIME, the 63-year-old overtly admits to having confronted substance abuse points previously. RuPaul mirrored on the primary time he smoked marijuana at age 10.
From that time onward, the Golden Globe winner says he was getting excessive “daily [he] may,” subsequently main him to abuse medication and alcohol to self-medicate in his early grownup years.
RuPaul says he had by no means confronted his interior demons till he acquired right into a relationship together with his long-time accomplice, Georges LeBar. The latter’s dependancy to crystal meth despatched him to a rehabilitation program in Florida, which was a blessing in disguise because it additionally allowed RuPaul to confront his personal wrestle with substance abuse.
The ‘Drag Race’ star had attended a gathering in help of his now-husband the place a girl shared her life story and the way she had been coping with a cocaine and booze dependancy. Her experiences appeared to have resonated so deeply with RuPaul, main him to the conclusion that he, too, was an addict.
“Booze, she mentioned, had been a method for her to keep up her sanity in a life that felt insupportable,” he wrote in his memoir.
“She was speaking about her life, however she was telling my story. There was one thing below her phrases, a fact that she was permitting to be revealed, that resonated with me in a method I couldn’t describe. She knew me. She was me, and I used to be her.”
After the assembly, RuPaul was decided to make a change and get his life again on monitor with out counting on medication. Nevertheless, conducting this turned more durable as his fame continued to surge within the early ’90s.
The San Diego native admits that, regardless of making an attempt to get clear throughout this time, he steadily slipped again into the abuse cycle.
RuPaul Shares The Second He Was Prepared To Flip His Life Round For Good
A bottle of champagne was all the time out there backstage, he recounted. To not point out that as his work schedule turned extra demanding, he discovered himself smoking a lot weed that it will definitely turned part of his morning routine.
However as time glided by, RuPaul skilled a sequence of incidents that made him notice his dependancy had spiraled uncontrolled. He almost acquired arrested for possessing marijuana on his option to a movie shoot in Canada in a single such occasion.
It will definitely prompted him to enroll in a rehabilitation program for his personal sake, and it was throughout this time that he may uncover his true self once more.
“What I had realized in my time away was that I couldn’t be motivated by concern of not being sufficient. I needed to be motivated by pleasure. By colours, music, laughter, dancing, and creativity — all of the issues that made life price residing.”
RuPaul says he has been sober since 1999. ‘The Home Of Hidden Meanings’ drops on March 5.
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