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Lee Daniels Reveals The Heartbreaking Reason He Began Excessively Drinking

The director explains how that past addiction continues to affect his life today.

Lee Daniels has spoken out about his journey to sobriety in the past, but in a recent interview with Vulture, the Empire creator went a bit deeper, revealing the troubling reason he began drinking in the first place.

In the candid story, Daniels began by sharing that he started drinking out of fear instilled into him by his father, who threatened to take his life if he lived his truth as a gay man.

"I never really even liked to drink, but I drank because my father told me if he ever saw me with a man, he would kill me," he said. "And until I was 22, I had to get drunk to actually go through with the process. And then the drug scene came."

Adding that this sense of fear ultimate drove him to drugs, he said he spent years indulging in different substances before officially gaining his sobriety — something he said he does not fully enjoy, to this day.

"I'm angsty, and I'm sober, so that is really weird to be going to the Met Ball and to other social activities not intoxicated," he added, referencing his past trauma. "I hate f*****g being sober. It's a bore. It's a f*****g snooze."

Daniels' father was ultimately shot and killed during a bar robbery in 1976. The famed director admitted that he is relieved that he is no longer here.

"I regret I have to say yes," he said. "I have come to terms with the love I have for my father, but I would be a liar to say that I wasn't relieved that he was gone."

Read Daniels' full Vulture interview here, where he touched on his own homophobia as a gay man, turning to drugs to numb the pain of losing friends to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and more.

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