Money can"t buy you class. Fortunately, money can buy you a second stint in rehab in case you fall off the wagon.
That second scenario is exactly what happened to The Real Housewives of New York City star Luann de Lesseps.
Now, she"s revealing exactly how much she drank in one night when she unfortunately relapsed. And the details may shock you.
Luann sat down with noted talk show villain Megyn Kelly to reveal exactly what prompted her return to rehab.
Like most people who abuse any kind of substance, she was self-medicating. In this case, to cope with a very unpleasant instance of the past haunting her.
See, her ex-husband Alexandre de Lesseps was suing her, accusing her of stealing from their children. And she found out about it in the worst way.
"I found out about this whole story," Luann told Megyn. "That I was getting sued, in the press."
"That was devastating," Luann explained. "I felt betrayed, I felt so hurt by that. I had my heart set on that house, my heart. I was devastated and I lost it."
Luann told Megyn and also E! about how she coped with that heartbreak by drinking.
You can see her say this in the video that we"ve included.
"When I fell off the wagon," Luann says. "I mean, I think I had two watermelon martinis."
That doesn"t sound like much at all — but she was only just beginning.
"I had at least two bottles of rosé," Luann reveals. "And I got into a six-pack of beer in one night."
Despite all of that, Luann enjoyed herself at the time: "I mean, and I was still dancing in the kitchen in a bikini."
Luann knows that alcohol has a devastating impact on her health, her mental state, and even on her looks.
"At this point, I feel like I’m almost allergic to alcohol," Luann told Megyn.
Luann feels this way "ecause I can’t be like most normal people and have a glass or two of wine."
"I’m like, I’ll drink the whole bottle and then I’m looking, where can I get another bottle?"
Drinking a bottle at a time on its own isn"t necessarily a warning sign, but feeling like they then need more? That"s not healthy.
"It just doesn’t work for me," Luann says of cutting herself off. "I’m just not wired that way."
Luann also spoke about how her life has been transformed by her sobriety.
"I have this whole new life now," Luann gushes.
This is why, even if she enjoys drinking when she does it, she wants to leave it as part of the past.
“I go to AA meetings, and I follow up my treatment now that I’m back from rehab," Luann says. "I take it very seriously."
It"s good that she takes it seriously. Luann was arrested for kicking a police officer last year. That could have ruined her whole life.
Now, what Luann had to drink would leave some people passed out and sick.
Others could drink it without any memory loss or a hangover. Why? Because people"s bodies are different.
What makes drinking dangerous for Luann isn"t the amount, but the fact that she cannot stop. As she says, she can"t just have two drinks.
This is not uncommon in addictive behaviors. There are people who can gamble and stop, and there are others who lose control.
That Luann realizes this about herself and treats alcohol as an allergy and is so honest and direct about confronting this tells us that she will hopefully be alright.
