Kelly Osbourne has told how her first rehab experience actually made her drug addiction worse.
The 39-year-old singer first went to rehab when she was 19. She’s now told how it didn’t help her become sober, but did the opposite.
“First rehab I went to was like university on how to be a better drug addict,” she said on an episode of TMZ Investigates: Matthew Perry & The Secret Celebrity Drug Ring.
“I’d learned so many tricks, so many things that I never even thought of from my fellow addicts that were in there. I’d also seen people threaten to leave until they got given what they wanted, whether it be Ambien for sleep or Valium for nerves – they’d end up getting it.”
Kelly first became addicted to opioids when she was 13 after she was prescribed the drugs after having her tonsils removed.
She’s been to rehab seven times in the past 20 years. During the interview, she recalled how when she left an AA or NA meeting, there would be “body brokers” waiting outside, so they could persuade addicts to start using again.
“They’ll sit outside of AA meetings looking for weak and vulnerable people that they encourage to relapse so they can then pick you up again,” she said. “I swear on everything that it is true, and it is heartbreaking.”
Kelly, who is now mum to two-year-old son Sidney, last suffered a relapse in 2021, after four years of sobriety.
“This is a little hard for me to talk about, but I’ve always promised you that I will always be honest with you about where I’m at and what’s going on in my road to recovery,” she posted on social media at the time. “I relapsed. Not proud of it. But I am back on track.”
