Luann Says She's 'Too Busy To Be An Alcoholic' In Bizarre Interview Before Rehab Return
Luann de Lesseps almost lost everything prior to her most recent rehab stint, but in a newly surfaced interview given before entering an in-patient treatment center this past July, The Real Housewives of New York star said that she’s “too busy to be an alcoholic!”
My journey is so long," she began telling Recovery Today Magazine. "Sixteen years ago, I was in the Swiss Alps and I had a car accident with my children in the car. I fell down the side of the mountain and my Range Rover rolled off the side of the road."
“I thought that I killed myself and killed my children. I had just come from a tea party with Elle McPherson,” de Lesseps’ said in the rambling interview.
When asked if she was drinking at the time of the accident, the 53-year-old said, “No! I was coming from a tea party. I was not drinking there. No. Well, I was having red wine at dinner. It is European. You know, red wine at dinner. Red wine. I never had a problem with alcohol.”
“But I did have a problem as of recent because I was self-medicating," she said. "Listen, I am too busy to be an alcoholic. I am not an alcoholic because alcohol doesn’t work for me.”
“I had post-traumatic stress from the accident. Ever since then I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning. So, I would shake. So I started taking sleeping pills and Xanax to get myself together. But I was not a big drinker. I was a mother, a wife, a countess.”
In a particularly odd part of the interview, de Lesseps’ said that it was her cast-mate Jill Zarin that brought her on RHONY.
“When Jill Zarin came into my life, we had a party and she’s like, ‘Hi, I’m Jill Zarin. I had never seen anything like it. I had been living in the Swiss Alps for 12 years. Then she walks up and I am like, ‘What is that? What is this person?’”
“I wasn’t looking for the housewives. The housewives found me!”
As fans know, de Lesseps’ life took another tragic turn when she was arrested on Christmas Eve, 2017, for assaulting a cop during a Palm Beach boozy bender.
In the interview, the RHONY star said that was her rock bottom!
“Being arrested and going to jail was bottom. Going to jail was rock bottom,” de Lesseps, who checked into rehab one day after Anthony Bourdain committed suicide, claimed.
“The night that I got arrested, I shouldn’t have gotten arrested. But it was the perfect storm. Life was like, ‘you got a problem, girlfriend.’ I chose to go to rehab."
“It happens to people all the time. People should be in the hospital, not in jail. I was like, ‘Why am I here?’ I’m only drunk.”
Following the ordeal, the countess accepted a plea bargain and was ordered to 12 months probation and recovery meetings.
To listen to the full audio, click here.
Do you think that Luann De Lesseps will be able to stay sober this time around? Sound off in the comments.
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