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Kudlow Admits He Still Struggles With Addiction After 18 Years Sober

A CNBC anchor, former Wall Street economist  and Ronald Reagan adviser has told how he’s still struggling with his  decades-long drug and alcohol addiction, even though he has been sober for 18  years.

Larry Kudlow, 66, made his emotional speech  to a 500-strong audience at the annual black tie Silver Hill Hospital Gala at  the exclusive Cipriani restaurant on 42nd street in Midtown Manhattan on  Wednesday.

Kudlow, who checked in for long-term  treatment at Hazelden rehab clinic in 1995, made a public confession of his drug  problem after he was forced to resign as chief economist at Bear Stearns the  year before.

‘I never believed I could be  clean and sober, it’s been 18 years-plus. I was at Hazelden for five months;  they helped me a lot.’ 

‘I needed long-term care, and I didn’t have  any money. I’d spent it on my addiction,’ he told the audience.

‘This was the end of the line. I was  unemployable. My wonderful wife had stopped enabling me, and filed for  divorce. We’ve been married 26 years, but at that moment it was very  difficult.’

Kudlow, who has been married three times,  tied the knot in 1986 with his current wife, Judith ‘Judy’ Pond, a painter and a  former Montana native.

In the mid-1990s, Kudlow entered a  twelve-step program in order to deal with his addiction to cocaine and alcohol.

To Wednesday night’s glamorous audience,  Kudlow said: ‘I told my  counselor, “I need help. I surrender, I am on my knees.  I am powerless”. She said, “We are going to invest in you”. And I broke down and  cried. I stayed, and things got better. It was a turning point for me. It has  given me a new career, which I never even saw coming.

‘Only, I was sober enough to walk through the  door when it was open. I show up every night and do my job to be a broadcaster  on TV and radio, but most of all I am a recovering alcoholic, and I never forget  that.’

Marie Louise Olsen

 

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