Naomi Campbell Remembers the Tragic Moment That Triggered Her Drug Addiction

Through the years, supermodel Naomi Campbell has been known as one of the world’s most beautiful and successful models. From fierce runway shows to her picture-perfect ad campaigns, Campbell has become a reference in the business in every way. In her new AppleTV+ docuseries, The Super Models, however, the British icon is breaking down her struggles behind the camera.

In one episode of the show, for example, Campbell talks about her struggles with drug addiction over the years. According to the model, her reliance on substances like cocaine began after the tragic assassination of Versace founder Gianni Versace in 1997.

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“I guess when I started using, one of the things I tried to cover up was grief,” Campbell revealed, per Page Six. “Addiction is such a b— thing, it really 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.”

Campbell continued, adding that she was using the drugs at the time as a way to cover up her feelings. “You can’t cover it,” she reflected. “I was killing myself. It was very hurtful.”

Also in her candid confession, Campbell looked back at Versace‘s importance in her life and career, and why losing him was so painful. “He was very sensitive to feeling me, he pushed me,” Campbell said. “He 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.”

Five years into her addiction, Campbell’s struggles hit the lowest point after she collapsed during a photoshoot. After that, she decided to seek treatment. “I chose to go to rehab,” she remembered. “It was one of the best and only things I could have done for myself at that time.”

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“It’s taken me many years to work on and deal with,” she added. “And it does still come up sometimes, but I just now have the tools [to know] how to deal with it now when it comes up.”

Her struggles with addiction aren’t the only aspect of her life Campbell is candid about in the show. In another moment, the mom of two looked back on the blatant racism she faced when starting out in the industry.

Talking to the directors of the series, Larissa Bills and Roger Ross Williams, they broke down how powerful, and sometimes painful, Campbell’s experiences were. “To think of her being a 16-year-old girl and being rejected from a show because they already had a Black woman or Black girl in the show. It’s really ugly,” Bills tells SheKnows. “I think that she’s gotten a lot of press about speaking up for herself, but she had to speak up for herself.”

“Naomi told me stories about how they loved her on the runway, but never for the campaigns,” Williams says, adding that she would often be “humiliated just sitting there never being called.” “But Naomi, she’s not going to, as she says, be stopped by the color of her skin,” Williams adds. “She’s just a very strong, powerful woman who just couldn’t be stopped. And as we see now, she is still not only in the game but on top of the game and running the game.”

Before you go, click here to see all the famous ’90s supermodels who have since become moms.