Kathy Griffin admitted that she hit a rock bottom in June 2020 and tried to take her own life with prescription pills during an interview with The View on Thursday December 2. The 61-year-old comedian admitted that between lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic and feeling like so many people were angry at her for her controversial photo holding a faux severed head for former President Donald Trump, she fell deeper into addiction.
While her story was undoubtedly emotional, Kathy eased the tension on the morning talk show by sliding a few jokes about Trump in. “I had fallen under the spell of pill addiction. I was really very addicted to prescription pills. I started probably kind of abusing them maybe a few years before the Trump thing—I’m not blaming it on him,” she said, as Joy Behar humorously gave her the okay to put the blame on the ex-president. Kathy jokingly blamed her battle with lung cancer on him. “He totally gave me cancer,” she quipped.
While the comedian also battled lung cancer, she said her addiction to pills was scarier than battling the disease. “That incident was much more frightening than cancer to me,” she said. “To feel like the whole world hates you. The whole world thinks you’re disgusting and irrelevant.” Later in the interview, Kathy mentioned that she fell into addiction after years of being prescribed different pills for injuries.
Kathy expanded on how her struggles with addiction led her to attempting suicide. “Once that happened, and frankly, with quarantine, I just started doing pills all day. I got this voice in my head like, ‘You shouldn’t be here anymore. You’ve had a good run. It’s time for you to go.’ I had this fantasy like my husband will find somebody wonderful, who’s more appropriate for him. I wrote this whole note, then I took about 100 pills,” she said.
After taking the pills, Kathy mentioned waking up and realizing she needed to go the hospital. “I fell down the stars, and then, I woke up. I never blacked out [before]. I had lacerations and injuries all over myself,” she explained, mentioning that she got in touch with her husband Randy Bick, who took her to the hospital, where she admitted to trying to commit suicide.
Between cancer and addiction, Kathy has certainly had a lot to overcome in the past year. While both are undeniably scary, the comedian seemed like she was in a much better place, and even joked about buying her own machine to give her own scans for cancer daily. “For some reason, when I survived, I laugh at everything now. I walk around all day giggling, because I feel like I had this near miss, and so now I just laugh at everything, and I’m kind of happier, but I am always afraid. I’m going to get scanned five or six times a day,” she said.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.