Dyan Cannon Discusses Cary Grant’s Drug Addiction

Old Hollywood was rife with secrets: homosexuality, affairs, budgeting “shortfalls,” drug addiction. Big movie producers owned their stars and wanted no stories to hit the headlines that would threaten their take at the box office. In fact, there are tons of stories of movie moguls going to great lengths to protect the reputations of their biggest stars – perhaps this is why Cary Grant’s life remained so hidden… until now.

Exploring Spirituality with Drugs

Grant’s ex-wife, Dyan Cannon, recently wrote a memoir dedicated to her life with her famous ex entitled Dear Cary. In it, she discusses how her husband used psychedelics to explore his inner self and used his search for enlightenment as a reason to abuse drugs.

Says Cannon: “He had some very tough things happen to him as a kid. Some very dark secrets that he never really dealt with. He thought LSD was the gateway to God. He wasn’t using it as a party thing; he was using it to get to that inner peace of himself because he was really spiritual, the man was, and he thought when our marriage started to go south that if I took it with him, it would heal us.”

Drug Abuse and Marriage

Cannon says that because her husband wanted her to, she did drugs with him on more than a few occasions. It’s not uncommon for the unaddicted spouse to do drugs or drink more often than he or she would have alone when married to someone living with a drug abuse or addiction problem. In an attempt to hold the relationship together, many spouses do that and other things that they never thought they would. Many women, especially, develop addictions in an attempt to hold onto their relationship, even if that relationship is not providing them with anything they need emotionally.

Says Cannon: “If you think he was charming on-screen, you should have met him-off screen. I have never ever met a presence like that, or power in his being, and charm, and his tenderness. He was the whole package.”

Telling Cary Grant’s Story to Help Others

Cannon has no fear that her confessional account of Grant’s drug addiction issues will lessen the love of his fans. On the contrary, she says: “I think people love him more for it. He was a wonderful man. A precious, wonderful, good, dear man who had demons he didn’t deal with.”

If you are living with someone who is pulling you down into addiction, your best first step is to get the help you need to fight drug abuse and all the problems that go along with it. Women ready to begin their road to recovery can contact us today at The Orchid.