American actress and singer Jenifer Lewis has never been afraid to speak honestly about her life. During a recent appearance on actress Keke Palmer’s Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast, she opened up about childhood trauma, sex addiction and living with bipolar disorder.
The actress, who is best known for playing Ruby Johnson in Black-ish, reflected on some of the most difficult moments of her life. She also explained how those experiences shaped the person she is today.
JENIFER LEWIS OPENS UP ABOUT HER PAST
Known as the self-proclaimed “Mother of Black Hollywood,” Jenifer Lewis revealed that she had slept with 63 men before she understood that sex had become an addiction.
“I have no secrets. There is no shame in my game.”
She explained that she shared everything in her book, including her childhood trauma, addictions and the challenges she faced throughout her life.
“I slept with 63 men… I wish I had known that my body was a temple. I didn’t known it then. I know it now.”
Lewis admitted that she did not realise she had an addiction at the time. Instead, sex became a way to cope with the emotional highs that came after performing on Broadway.
JENIFER LEWIS SAYS SEX BECAME HER DRUG
The actress explained that performing on stage brought an incredible rush of emotions. However, once the show ended, she struggled with coming down from that high.
“When you get off a Broadway stage and all that ovation and applause… what are you gonna do?” Lewis said.
“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.”
“I would have sex. Sex was the drug.”
Later, Lewis said her outlook on life changed during the AIDS epidemic, which deeply affected many people around her.
“It wasn’t until life got real and the AIDS epidemic hit where I went ‘wait a minute.’”
“There’s got to be more to life than just me clawing at the void of who am I and what am I,” she recalled thinking.
“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.”
BIPOLAR DISORDER AND A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
Jenifer Lewis also spoke about discovering that she had bipolar disorder after experiencing a nervous breakdown.
“I had a nervous breakdown. I went down after all the deaths from AIDS.”
She said it happened in the early 1990s, after losing hundreds of people she knew.
“I’d known 200 people that had died. You’d come home and three would be dead. You’d come home and five would be dead on the phone machine. It didn’t make sense because we were too young to experience that kind of death, that young, we were in our 20’s for godsake.”
Lewis’ emotional interview gave listeners a deeper understanding of her journey.