Naomi Campbell openly confessed to the self-destructive path she once tread with drugs and alcohol. The 53-year-old supermodel has revealed her struggles with substance abuse, acknowledging that she turned to these vices as a means to cope with the profound grief stemming from her childhood abandonment issues, as well as the tragic loss of her dear friend Gianni Versace, who fell victim to a fatal shooting in 1997.
In the recently aired Apple TV+ docuseries, 'The Supermodels,' Campbell candidly shared, "Grief has been a very strange thing in my life because it doesn't always [show]. I go into a shock and freak out when it actually happens, and then later is when I break. But I kept the sadness inside, I just dealt with it."
Regarding Gianni's untimely demise, she added, "Azzedine Alaïa was my papa. With him, I learnt about chosen families. The same for Gianni Versace.
"He was very sensitive to feeling me, like, he pushed me. How would push me to step outside and go further when I didn't think I had it within myself to do it. So, when he died, my grief became very bad.
"When I started using, that was one of the things I tried to cover up, was grief. Addiction is such a… it's just a b******* thing, it really is.
"You think, 'Oh it's gonna heal that wound.' It doesn't. It can cause such huge fear and anxiety. So I got really angry…
"When you try to cover something up, your feelings… You spoke about abandonment. I tried to cover that with something. You can't cover it. I was killing myself. It was very hurtful."
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In 1999, Naomi sought help through rehab after collapsing during a photoshoot. She admitted that facing her problems was a daunting endeavor, remarking, "For my mistakes, I've always owned up to them. I chose to go to rehab.
"It was one of the best and only things I could have done for myself at that time. It is scary to pick up the mirror and look into the mirror. It is scary, and it's taken me many years to work on and deal with."
Despite having been convicted of assault on four separate occasions, a consequence of her past struggles with anger—a struggle she has attributed to her tumultuous childhood and the absence of her biological father—Naomi believes she can now better manage these impulses.
She stated, "It does still come up sometimes. But I just now have the tools how to deal with it now when it comes up.
"I have to think of something outside of myself. Something greater than myself."
A mother of two, Naomi is more than willing to extend her support to anyone else grappling with similar issues, affirming, "If I have people in my life that I love and I see that they need help, of course I'm going to offer my help. I'm there, I'm very loyal to the people that I love."
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