Jenifer Lewis on Past Sex Addiction: "I never knew it was a problem"
The veteran actress opened a tough dialogue on Keke Palmer's podcast about her history with bipolar disorder and sex addiction.
Screenshot from " Jenifer Lewis on Sex Addiction, Purpose & Standing Up for What Matters | Baby, this is Keke Palmer," YouTube.
Jenifer Lewis candidly discussed some of the toughest moments and chapters in her life. The veteran actress appeared on Keke Palmer’s podcast and opened up about her childhood trauma, living with bipolar disorder and her history with sex addiction. Lewis, who has famously starred in films like What’s Love Got yo Do With It and TV shows like black-ish, A Different World and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, said she has no regrets about being an open book.
“I have no secrets. There is no shame in my game,” she told Palmer. Lewis explained that she used intimacy as a coping mechanism to get through stress, pain and trauma. She also said that she initially saw her actions as sexual freedom but later recognized it as an addiction.
“Sex was the drug,” she explained.
“I slept with 63 men. Now that was fabulous,” Lewis shared, laughing. “I wish I had known my body was a temple. I used to just find a gorgeous man and f—- the sh– out of them.
“I didn’t know it, I know it now. I never knew it was a problem,” Lewis said.
She also said that her success on Broadway fueled her addiction. because she had to find the rush of performance elsewhere when she wasn’t onstage.
“When you get off a Broadway stage and all that ovation and applause… what are you gonna do?”
Lewis said that some entertainers become hooked on substances to attempt to come down from the emotional high, while she sought comfort elsewhere.
“You’re going to either go stick something in your arm, you’re going to go smoke some, you’re going to drink something to come down from that high. I used to just go find a gorgeous man.”
The AIDS epidemic was a wake-up call for Lewis. She said her perspective on life changed dramatically during the height of the crisis, as she lost many friends and colleagues.
“It wasn’t until life got real and the AIDS epidemic hit where I went, ‘Wait a minute,’” she recalled. “There’s got to be more to life than just me clawing at the void of ‘who am I’ and ‘what am I.’
“Let’s go find out who you are. Let’s go find out where you belong. Let’s go find out why you came here. Let’s go find out what love is. Let’s go do the work.”
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