Insider reveals heartbreaking words that saved drug addict First Lady's life
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Poor Betty Ford had no idea what was about to hit her. Still wearing her pastel pink bathrobe, she sat, almost swallowed by the couch in her new home at Rancho Mirage, California, surrounded by 12 of her nearest and dearest. They were about to deliver the harshest truths she would ever have to hear.
![[A family portrait in the White House (L-R): Susan, Steve, Jack, Mike and his wife Gayle with Betty and Gerald Ford, plus the family's Golden Retriever Liberty]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/17/93041923-14179175-A_family_portrait_in_the_White_House_L_R_Susan_Steve_Jack_Mike_a-m-34_1734544411126.jpg)
The result would not just save Betty Ford’s life, but those of tens of thousands of others who have found help and hope through her addiction foundation. If there is a ‘celebrity rehab clinic’, the Betty Ford Foundation is it - having treated Robert Downey Jr, Keith Urban, Drew Barrymore, Liz Taylor, Lindsay Lohan, Ozzy Osbourne and countless others since it was founded in 1982.
![[Jerry put his arm around her. 'We’re doing this because we love you,' he repeated several times]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/11/15/93041959-14179175-image-a-3_1733929550015.jpg)
But four years earlier, Betty herself was in the depths of a serious addiction to pills and booze. It had started, as is so often the case, when she was prescribed opioids to deal with the pain from a pinched nerve. That had escalated until she was hooked on a cocktail of medication - pain pills, sleeping pills, pills to counteract the side-effects of other pills - and, of course, alcohol.
![[A year after the couple had left the White House, Betty Ford's family called an intervention]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/11/15/93041943-14179175-image-m-10_1733929772066.jpg)
Still wearing her pastel pink bathrobe, she sat, almost swallowed by the couch in her new home at Rancho Mirage, California, surrounded by 12 of her nearest and dearest. A family portrait in the White House (L-R): Susan, Steve, Jack, Mike and his wife Gayle with Betty and Gerald Ford, plus the family's Golden Retriever Liberty.
![[Betty Ford in front of the White House Christmas tree]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/16/93041933-14179175-Betty_Ford_in_front_of_the_White_House_Christmas_tree-m-2_1734538151008.jpg)
Jerry put his arm around her. 'We’re doing this because we love you,' he repeated several times. ‘I had watched her pour a large glass of vodka over ice at nine every morning and nurse it until four in the afternoon,’ says Bob Barrett, Ford’s chief of staff. ‘She would then pour another that lasted until dinner, when the drinks began to flow more freely.
![[This man, who once held the most powerful position in the entire world, had lived with and loved an alcoholic for at least 20 years]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/11/15/93041919-14179175-image-m-8_1733929693718.jpg)
