Stephen Fry has never been shy in talking about his former cocaine addiction that lasted for 15 years, but the comedian said in a new interview that the drug had the most negative impact on his career.
His drug use continues to be among the topics of discussion in More Fool Me, his third volume of memoirs. Fry previously admitted his cocaine use in his second memoir, The Fry Chronicles, detailing stories about using the substance in places including the House of Commons and Buckingham Palace. But after getting clean in 2001, Fry said his extensive addiction didn’t leave with him with any physical damage.
“It did me harm in that I could have done twice as much work,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I would have got up earlier. I would have went on walks. I would have drunk less alcohol. [But] I don’t think I’m going to lie on my deathbed regretting much.”
Fry previously revealed in his second memoir that his cocaine use peaked in the mid ’80s. Although he didn’t go into specific details about the expense of his addiction, he acknowledged that “a large section of the Peruvian GDP went up my nose” and that it was “monumentally stupid.”
The comedian has also been candid about his decades-long battle with bipolar disorder and manic depression. He admitted that using cocaine was an attempt to help him calm down, but led to him self-isolating from friends and loved ones.
“I tended to take it alone at home and play word games, mind spinning. I’d do very difficult crosswords, I would spend hours on these,” he said in 2011. “I found it extremely easy to stop, but it took me a very long time to get to a position where I was ready to.”
Fry is currently the president of mental health charity, Mind, and has worked to help change perceptions of mental illness.
