Queer Eye’s culture expert, Karamo Brown, 38, has a new biography that he’s promoting called Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope. He was on People Live discussing his career and the book. Karamo opened up about his battle with cocaine addiction, which he also covered in his book. He said that he was so far gone that he would just give his ATM card to his dealer to take out the money for drugs. He also described a scene one New Year’s Eve in which he did cocaine in front of his mom and remembers how hurt she looked. He’s since kicked that addiction and he credits that experience with helping him empathize with other addicts.
Cocaine became my escape. I was using this drug early in the morning, in the evening. There was a point where I had my ATM set for fast cash for the amount for an eighth of cocaine. I would give my card to this strange dealer, I didn’t even know his last name, so he could go to the ATM for me and get cocaine out. He could have robbed me blind. That was a low point.
I was in a car one New Year’s Eve with my mother. She was in the front seat and she knew I was using. I was doing cocaine while she was in the front seat. The look on her face of hurt and pain. I put my family through that.
I had to forgive myself. Going through that allows me to talk to people who have addictions and say ‘I know what you are going through.’ Whether it’s drugs, alcohol, food, exercise, there are so many different addictions. I can speak to that and say ‘you can grow through this and heal from it.’
In my 20s when I was drinking a lot my mom took me aside and tried to talk to me about it. I wouldn’t hear it and told her she was overreacting. When I think about that now, and how delicate and careful she was in trying to talk to me, I cringe. It took me a long time to quit and I now that I’m a mom I see it through her eyes and realize how hard it must have been for her. (Not that it takes being a parent to see that, it just takes time and it did give me a different perspective.) Addiction is so insidious and can make us blind to how we hurt the people closest to us. Some addicts sadly never get that chance to understand how much damage they’re doing to their families.
photos credit: WENN and via Instagram
I love him on the show. Sorry to be superficial but he’s so beautiful. Cudos to him for talking about it and doing something for others that struggle too.
He is beautiful. Glad they included the picture of him with his torso exposed 😋
OMG that is a Cardi-B level of thirst trapping. I love him and WOW. Though honestly I prefer his masterful use of the russet cape.
I love your website – you keep me relevant and I truly enjoy your writing style.
I am so happy he found a solution – addiction is insidious and powerful. Powers of example in recovery, are equally powerful. With 8 years of sobriety myself, watching others get it and become well, thrills me like nothing else. Mazel to you, as well!
Addiction destroys/hurts loved ones more than the addicts.
I agree.
I listen to a podcast called Keep It, and the host Ira Madison III interviewed Karamo and tried to get him to explain his support of Pence and his refusal to call out people as racists. As a white person, it’s certainly not my call to take “sides”, but it made me think that it’s super hard to have to carry that mantle of responsability as a gay Black man, with all the complicated intersectionality of that.
It’s not hard at all…
Once you decide not to be the band-aid for gaping wounds…
He’ll learn…cause LIFE will continue to teach him….he may IGNORE the lessons…but he’ll learn them….
Because…based on what the PENCES have used their political powers to advocate and how they CONTINUE to support policies that are inhumane regarding the LGBTQIA community…
Ain’t no WAY
My favorite podcast! Ira conducted that interview really well and was very matter of fact about his different opinions.
I agree with you, it was a great and enlightening conversation.
Lala, thanks for taking time to answer me, I really appreciate it. As a non-American, I detest Pence and his bigoted entourage without having to deal with his bullshit myself.
I’m a hard liner when it comes to coke. Mainly because of the dire effect the industry has had on totally innocent people often in other countries. 43 native trainee teachers got burned alive by drug gangs in Mexico cos they dared demonstrate against racist hiring policies. I really object to the entertainment superclass humble bragging about their coke use without making the slightest apology to all the ppl harmed. Or how about some personal reparations to the families of those murdered.
THIS……….THIS……A TRILLION TIMES…………….THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s good to be reminded of the human costs of all the things we do in the States…
My neighborhood…where I was raised…which still houses so many of the people I care about…reminds me of the horrors of cocaine…each and everyday….
Yeah, I like Amy Poehler a lot, but I was very disappointed in her a few years back when she casually joked about doing drugs in her memoirs. Like, have a little self-awareness there. People are literally dying from the drug trade, whether it’s because they’re addicts themselves or caught up in the violence of the gang wars. Not to mention the thousands serving life sentences for your “fun” hobby.
I 100% agree! I lived in San Francisco for a few years and it seemed like everyone did coke there and so casually! I never have and never will after hearing a song from one of my favorite bands, AJJ, with the lyrics:
“How can you put that straw up your nose
When you know how coke is manufactured?
It’s made by children for the immature
It is made by babies who’ve been captured”
That’s always stayed with me.
My mom probably would have beat the crap out of me on the spot. Wow glad he’s in recovery