EXCLUSIVE: Carol Burnett's Family Heartbreak — Hollywood Icon Opens Up About Late Daughter Carrie Getting Into Drugs as a Teen Before Multiple Rehab Stints
Carol Burnett had to use tough love to get daughter Carrie through three drug rehab stints.
Jan. 15 2026, Published 5:40 p.m. ET
Carol Burnett shared the heartbreak over how she was forced to allow her late daughter, Carrie Hamilton, to "hate" her in order to save her life from drug addiction, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Hollywood icon, 92, recalled during an appearance on Michelle Obama's IMO podcast on Wednesday, January 14, that it took three trips to rehab before Carrie finally got clean, only to later lose her to cancer at the age of 38.
'You Have to Let Them Hate You'
Carol Burnett became emotional discussing how she had to let her daughter 'hate' her during her teenage battle wtih drugs.
"It was difficult," Burnett revealed about trying to raise her three children while starring on her wildly popular eponymous variety series from 1967 through 1978.
"And then Carrie, my darling Carrie, got into drugs as a teenager. And it took a lot," the TV legend confessed.
"But it was three rehabs and family sessions. And the last rehab we sent her to, she was so angry with me. I mean, and I said, 'I have to love her enough to let her hate me,'" Burnett shared with her voice cracking.
"You have to love them and have to let them hate you. And that's hard," she said about the tough love fight to save her daughter from drug addiction.
Carrie Hamilton's Journey to Sobriety
Carol Burnett shared Carrie with her second husband, Joe Hamilton.
Burnett recalled how her talented daughter aspired to become a singer like one of her heroes, but a doctor helped Hamilton realize she, too, could wind up dead like Janis Joplin, the bluesy rocker who died at the age of 27 in 1970 from an accidental heroin overdose.
"She also was into singing and music and all of that," The Carol Burnett Show star described about Hamilton.
"And the last rehab we sent her to, she had this wonderful doctor. He was young. And she was ranting. She told me this later. She said, 'I was rambling and raving. And I said, I want to be Janis Joplin. And he said, well, she's dead.'"
"That really hit me," Carrie later told her mom, who revealed, "So she sobered up when she was 17."
'She Was Doing Great Until She Got Sick'
Carol Burnett collaborated with her daughter on TV and with a Broadway play.
Burnett proudly boasted that Hamilton turned her life around after she got sober, including landing a recurring role on the TV series Fame.
The Palm Royale star dished about how she later worked with her daughter, appearing twice on Fame, and the pair did a TV movie together.
Burnett shared how Carrie turned away from acting to concentrate on writing music.
"She wasn't after being famous or anything. We wrote a Broadway show together, and it went to Broadway. Hal Prince directed it. And we were doing great," the comic legend recalled, referring to Hollywood Arms, a play based on Burnett's memoir.
"She was doing great until she got sick. But boy, we went through it," Burnett noted.
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Carrie Hamilton's Tragic Death
Carrie Hamilton died less than a year after being diagnosed with cancer.
Burnett and her daughter were working on the play when Hamilton discovered in 2001 that she had lung cancer that quickly spread to her brain.
Hamilton died on January 20, 2002, at the age of 38, while Burnett went on to finish the play in her memory.
"You don’t get over it, but you cope," The Four Seasons star revealed in 2018 while looking back on Hamilton's death.
"What else can you do? When Carrie died, I didn't want to get out of bed for a while, but I had a play to finish that we started that Hal Prince was going to direct. I owed it to Carrie, and I owed it to Hal."
