Jeanie Clarke Talks Her Addictions And How It Hurt Her Marriage, Getting Clean, Her New Book, More

I recently interviewed Jeanie Clarke, ex-wife of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, and former WCW talent known as ‘Lady Blossom.’ In the second and final part of the interview below, Clarke talks about coming up with the name “Stone Cold,” battling addictions, hitting rock bottom, getting clean, Prince and Chyna passing away and more. You can also listen to the interview in the video above, or download it at this link.

Click here for part one of the interview, where Jeanie talked about getting her start in pro wrestling, working with ex-boyfriend Chris Adams in World Class Championship Wrestling, signing with WCW, working with Chris Adams and Steve Austin and more.

You can also purchase her new book, Through the Shattered Glass, at this link.

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One of the famous stories is you coming up with the name ‘Stone Cold’ for your husband at the time, Steve Austin [who had been wrestling as “The Ringmaster”]:

“We were just sitting on the couch flipping through channels, and it was very much a fluke again. We saw this show and this man was called ‘The Iceman.’ Steve was like ‘that’s the kind of character I want to be.’ He was a hitman or something and put people in the fridge. Steve told the WWF offices and they brought back names like Ice Dagger, Fang McFrost. I remember Brian Pillman on speakerphone in absolute hysterics over these names. Steve just couldn’t get it. He would drink hot tea, and he was sitting by the edge of the bed and I just said ‘don’t worry, you’ll think of something. Now drink your tea before it gets stone cold. There it is, there’s your name.’ He had this big smile.”

With your book, you talk a lot about addictions, when did you decide it was something you were going to speak about.

“I think it’s important to talk about, but I hid my addictions for a long time. It started during my marriage with Steve, after we moved back to Texas. Most addicts do progress. Ambien, Valium, Vicodin, GHB all became out of control. I write in my book some scary stuff. I had to be resuscitated. I was in the hospital several times, some scary stuff. Ruining my marriage. Years of being an addict. Want to stop, but can’t. If you asked an addict if they wanted to stop I think they’d say they’d like that. I had several seizures and I would take the pills and throw them down the toilet. Then you start getting the drug psychosis, the withdrawals. You just can’t stop. You become more and more secretive, lying to people. Life is torture and if you try to stop you have bad withdrawals.

“My daughter called a rehab after I progressed to harder drugs. I was in rehab for six months. The first three months were hell when I was detoxing. Coming out of rehab is a readjustment. You look at the consequences of the things you’ve done. Your house is a mess, I hadn’t paid my bills. You don’t realize how deep addiction can take you. I’ve been clean for three years, and when I came out I decided to write a book. It was very therapeutic to write about my lack of responsibility with my own daughters. I want to make amends with my daughters about certain things, but an addict is an addict, and there’s a lot of ways you have to be honest. Holding your hands up and saying ‘I was an addict, I did this wrong,’ is a part of the healing. I don’t say anything about wrestling in any way, because I know WWE has a hell of a Wellness Program now. I think I was a victim in a way, and I’m lucky to be alive. I’ve almost died three times. I write all about that, and I feel really blessed that I can write a book and hopefully people can find it …

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