21st September, 2023
By Victoria Oluwayemi
Former supermodel Naomi Campbell has recently shared her personal journey of overcoming drug and alcohol addiction during her early modeling career.
In a new documentary series titled “The Super Models” on Apple TV+, the 53-year-old fashion icon opened up about how she turned to substances as a means of coping with the emotional pain stemming from her father’s abandonment during her childhood and the tragic loss of her close friend and renowned designer, Gianni Versace.
In the docuseries, Campbell reflects on her illustrious modeling career alongside fellow supermodels Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington.
She admitted that at the peak of her fame in the early 1990s, her substance abuse was spiraling out of control, putting her health and well-being in jeopardy.
Campbell explained her complex relationship with grief, stating that it often manifested differently in her life. She tended to suppress her sadness and deal with it internally rather than express it openly. The fashion world was rocked by the murder of Gianni Versace in 1997, and Naomi had a deep connection with him, making his loss especially devastating for her.
“Late designer Azzedine Alaïa was my papa. With him, I learned about chosen families. The same for Gianni Versace.
”He was very sensitive to feeling me, like, he pushed me. How would push me to step outside and go further when I didn’t think I had it within myself to do it? So, when he died, my grief became very bad.’
‘When I started using, that was one of the things I tried to cover up, was grief. Addiction is such a… it’s just a bulls**t thing, it is.
”You think, “Oh it’s gonna heal that wound”. It doesn’t. It can cause such huge fear and anxiety. So I got really angry.”
She shared how Gianni Versace had been a significant figure in her life, much like her mentor Azzedine Alaïa, and how his sensitivity and encouragement pushed her to excel. His death marked a turning point for her, leading her to seek solace in substance use, believing it could heal her emotional wounds, only to find it exacerbated her anxiety and fears.
Naomi Campbell’s public struggle with addiction became evident when she collapsed during a photo shoot in 1999, the result of a five-year battle with cocaine addiction. This harrowing incident compelled her to take action, and in 1999, she decided to enter rehab.
‘When you try to cover something up, your feelings… You spoke about abandonment. I tried to cover that with something. You can’t cover it. I was killing myself. It was very hurtful.’ she said
In reflecting on her past actions, Campbell owned up for her mistakes, including her legal troubles, such as her assault conviction in 2000.
She chose rehab as a means of rehabilitation and personal growth, acknowledging that facing oneself in the mirror and addressing deep-seated issues can be a daunting but necessary step toward recovery.
”For my mistakes, I’ve always owned up to them. I chose to go to rehab”, Naomi stated.
‘It was one of the best and only things I could have done for myself at that time. It is scary to pick up the mirror and look into the mirror. It is scary, and it’s taken me many years to work on and deal with,’ she added.