Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne has put her cards on the table — and confesses she’s relapsed after being sober for nearly two decades.
“Took my relapse public more to come,” the 46-year-old actress wrote on social media, but she also vowed to beat her demons, according to Page Six.
“Gonna do it for baby Bambo,” Natasha wrote, referring to the project about hockey player Sophie “Bambo” Braverman that she’s writing, directing and producing.
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Natasha’s struggles with substance abuse date back to the mid-2000s when she battled booze and drug addictions that led to a series of run-ins with the law and serious health issues, per Rolling Stone.
In 2005 she was admitted to a Manhattan hospital suffering from hepatitis C, a heart infection and a collapsed lung.
At the time, Natasha was also undergoing methadone treatment for heroin addiction. She was admitted to a drug and alcohol treatment center later that year.
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She’d been sober since 2006 but has admitted that due to her “well-publicized drug problem, there was many years I couldn’t get work.” Also, in 2012, she underwent open-heart surgery to repair a valve that was previously damaged “as a result of drug use.”
She’s mounted an impressive comeback, nabbing multiple SAG Awards and Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her roles in Russian Doll and Orange Is the New Black, playing junkie Nicky Nichols.
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As for her addiction issues, she’s blamed working “nonstop” since she was a child. She made her TV debut at age 7 as Opal in TV’s Pee-wee’s Playhouse, played Jessica in the American Pie films and starred in the 1998 big-screen comedy Slums of Beverly Hills.
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“I didn’t have a 28-day drug problem. I had a take-five-years-off drug problem,” she said in an interview.
“I think I also needed a break just in terms of the child actor in me was tired. I mean, I’d been working from, like, 6 to 24, pretty much nonstop.”
When a follower offered her heartfelt support on social media, Natasha replied with a quip, writing: “Thanks, boss. There but for the grace, etc. Sending love back your way. May become a pothead or a nun. TBD.”