Jamie Lee Curtis Says This Is The 'Bravest Thing' She's Ever Done

Jamie Lee Curtis has made a career out of taking chances. Her rise to fame started when she starred in "Halloween," a low-budget horror movie that became one of the biggest franchises in the genre. Curtis then jumped into comedy, working alongside Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd in "Trading Places," and risked looking foolish when she created her iconic striptease scene in "True Lies" without rehearsing it first. Shefinally earned an Oscar for her role in "Everything Everywhere All At Once," playing a frumpy IRS agent. But, to Curtis, all of that pales in comparison to one thing, telling The Guardian, "My bravest thing? Getting sober."

Curtis began abusing painkillers after getting plastic surgery in 1989. During those years, she saw the dangers of addiction first hand, her brother, Nicholas, had his life cut short when he died of a heroin overdose in 1994, but it would be another five years before she faced her own addiction head on, and it is one of the things she is most proud of, telling Variety, "To call yourself an alcoholic or a drug addict is a badge of honor. It is a way of acknowledging something that is a profound statement and can be, for many people, life-changing." She further elaborated to The Guardian on how confronting her addiction helped her open in more ways than one: "I have parents who both had issues with drinking and drugs. I have a dead sibling. I have numerous friends who never found the freedom, which is really the goal -– right? Freedom."

Addiction was a generational issue in the Curtis household. Jamie Lee Curtis' father, Tony Curtis, faced his own substance abuse issues.Jamie Lee Curtis even joined him in it, telling Variety, "I did cocaine and freebased once with my dad." But for her, the issues were drinking and painkillers. To hide it from the world, Curtis created a set of specific rules, telling Variety, "I never did it when I worked. I never took drugs before 5 p.m. I never, ever took painkillers at 10 in the morning." 

But in 1998, Curtis was found out when she snuck away into the kitchen to wash down some Vicodin with wine and was caught by a friend: "I heard this voice: 'You know, Jamie, I see you. I see you with your little pills, and you think you're so fabulous and so great, but the truth is you're dead. You're a dead woman.'" Not long after, Curtis' oldest sibling, Kelly, stayed with her while recovering from surgery, and Jamie Lee started stealing her painkillers. Filled with guilt, she wrote a letter to her sister admitting what she had done, expecting to be met with anger. Instead, "she just looked at me and put her arms out and hugged me and said, 'You are an addict, and I love you, but I am not going to watch you die.'" Soon after, Curtis attended her first recovery meeting and told her husband, Christopher Guest, and their children that she was an addict. Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest have been married nearly 40 years and continue strong.

Curtis celebrated 25 years of sobriety in 2024, posting a photo of herself and her 25-year chip on Instagram, writing, "For all those struggling with addiction and shame, there are others out here who care. My hand in yours. Our hands in yours."