Bachelorette Alum Craig Robinson Reveals Drug Addiction and Suicide Attempt

The former reality TV contestant spoke his truth about his challenging personal past.

By Samantha Schnurr Feb 01, 2019 7:11 PMTags
The Bachelorette, Craig RobinsonABC/Craig Sjodin

Craig Robinson is speaking his truth. 

During an interview on the Reality Steve podcast, the Bachelorette season six alum revealed his history of drug addiction and alcohol abuse, culminating in a suicide attempt last summer. 

"I've been a drug addict and an alcoholic," Robinson said. As he recalled, he initially had a problem with alcohol that began in high school and continued through to fraternity life in college and into his adult life as an attorney. 

"Alcohol became more and more involved in my life," he recalled. Stemming from alcohol, he developed his main addiction to cocaine after trying it at 18 years old."I love it," Robinson said of the drug. "I always liked to be up in the sky and to feel the rush kind of that cocaine gave me."

During the revealing chat, Robinson acknowledged there were signs of his daily drinking while filming the ABC show in 2010, but made clear he blames no one else but himself for his behavior. To pass the drug test for the show, he stayed clean for two or three days as cocaine goes through the body quickly.

Robinson noted that, despite his reliance on substances, he was able to conceal his addictions from other people, had continued success at school and work and never had any legal trouble. "If nobody else thought it was a problem, then I could convince myself that it wasn't a problem for me," the reality TV alum said.  

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However, after the show, his post-Bachelorette fame and partying lifestyle ramped up his drug and alcohol use. By around 2016, Robinson began doing cocaine on a more regular basis, describing the period as "complete and utter misery."

"Over the last three years, things started to get really, really bad for me," he explained. 

Though he told himself repeatedly that it was the "last time" he would do cocaine, he wasn't sleeping and doing the drug at home throughout the night before crashing for 15-hour periods. Ultimately, he was so dependent on it, that he would feel sluggish and need cocaine to bring him back to his "base line."

ABC/Rick Rowell

By the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, Robinson realized that he was not physically or mentally capable of continuing to work under his addiction, so he left his job in February 2018. For four months, he was almost completely isolated from the world in his apartment, not responding to people on his phone and in a period of depression. "[I was] thinking pretty deeply at that point about suicide," he said. 

In June 2018, he attempted to take his own life, but was fortunately unsuccessful. After typing out a suicide letter, drinking whiskey, taking cocaine and sleeping pills, Robinson tried to hang himself, but ultimately passed out instead. 

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A month later during a car ride with his father, he broke down crying and admitted everything because he knew he was going to attempt suicide again once he made it back home, but did not want to die. Just days after, Robinson checked into rehab. 

Now sober, the former TV star is speaking out with the goal of helping others in his position. 

"Hopefully this resonates with someone to know...there's hope, there's hope out there," he said. "I hope that I can give hope to somebody else who is going through what I was going through because it sucks."

If you or someone you know needs help, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.