While discussing his addictions to alcohol and drugs, the 66-year-old British actor claims candy cigarettes 'prepared' young people for hard drugs and tobacco.
- Nov 5, 2023
AceShowbiz - Stephen Fry claims candy cigarettes were to blame for his addiction issues. The 66-year-old comedian said his addictions started with sugar when he was a youngster and quickly moved on to smoking and cocaine as he got older.
"When I was a teenager, I had this vast empty hole in me that said 'Feed me, I need this sugar, I need it.' When it wasn't sugar, it became tobacco, so I smoked and then in my twenties it became cocaine. I just couldn't sit still. It's that addictive impulse," Stephen said on John Cleese's GB News show.
"You would have a pipe made of liquorice and you would have cigarettes with red tips on the end which were candy cigarettes. So you were being prepared for cocaine and tobacco. Essentially, you were given white powder and tobacco, and I never could eat enough of that."
Stephen was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after a "rather big eruption in the mid-90s" and believes his mental health issues led him to seek solace in drugs and alcohol.
During a 2015 interview with "Lateline" journalist Tony Jones, he said, "Just imagine for a moment that you do have a condition in which your moods can change without your ability to change them back, in big ways. You become hugely manic or you become terribly depressed, and you don't know you have a disease. You just feel either ridiculously energised or appallingly low and suicidal."
"So you become dependent, or I became dependent, on taking these mixtures of drugs and keeping an even keel. But of course it's a false control because each down is a bigger crash and that results in a bigger up," he added. "I'm so glad it's over. Ridiculous situation to be in and I've seen it's done terrible harm to people."
