Jamie Lee Curtis Says Plastic Surgery Sparked 10-Year Opioid Addiction Struggle Full of 'Stealing'

Jamie Lee Curtis' 10-year addiction to painkillers began with plastic surgery.

The "Halloween" star took another deep dive into her struggle with opioids in a new People cover story, which comes two years after Prince's death inspired her to tell the world about her "secret" addiction to prescription drugs.

Now going into more detail, the horror icon told People she was addicted to opiates for a decade, beginning in the late 1980s. Curtis explained that she was prescribed painkillers after undergoing a minor plastic surgery in 1989 for her "hereditary puffy eyes." The actress recalled that in the years that followed the procedure she would do anything to get more drugs, even stealing them from her friends and family.

"I was ahead of the curve of the opiate epidemic," Curtis said. "I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving. No one knew. No one."

Curtis, who has been married to her husband actor-director Christopher Guest for 33 years, comes from a family history of addiction. Her father actor Tony Curtis abused alcohol, cocaine and heroin, and her brother Nicholas Curtis died from a heroin overdose in 1994. After seeking help in 1999, the actress has since dedicated her life to staying sober and offering help to others who are struggling.

"I'm breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family," Curtis said. "Getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment ... bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children and bigger than any work, success, failure. Anything."

"In recovery meetings, anyone who brings up opiates, the entire room will turn and look at me," she continued. "Because I'll be like, 'Oh here, talk to me. I'm the opiate girl.'"

When first coming forward as a recovering addict in a Huffington Post op-ed, the actress said that she first sought painkillers "to kill emotional and physical pain."

The actress said that she could "relate" to Prince, who died from an opioid overdose, because she was once "toxic too."

"Most people who become addicted, like me, do so after a prescription for a painkiller following a medical procedure," Curtis wrote. "Once the phenomenon of craving sets in, it is often too late."

"Let's work harder, look closer and do everything we can not to enable and in doing so, disable, our loved ones who are ill."

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