Many people battle with cocaine addiction. However, we never expect this to happen to famous people. However, drugs don’t choose races, genders, ages, or socioeconomic position.
“Snapple Lady” Fights Her Cocaine Addiction
Mostly known as the “Snapple Lady”, Wendy Kaufman became known when the became the face of the company in the early 90s. As a mere employee and without any previous experience, she accepted the challenge. And both the business and Wendy turn their lives to the better.
In what concerns to the business, Snapple experienced an amazing sales boom thanks to the national advertisement campaign. But for Wendy, this meant a lot more. Wendy says that she tried cocaine in the early 80s and she liked it. So, she continued to use and she wasn’t able to stop. “I started to do cocaine in 1980, right after I graduated college. By 1989, I could press my cheek and blood would come out of my nose. I was so sick that it really did bring me to my knees.”, Kaufman says.
After 9 years into addiction, Wendy couldn’t bare it anymore. She didn’t have anyone to turn to and she was completely desperate. She would rather die than just keep using drugs.
The “Snapple Lady” is the first to admit that this campaign was what she needed to overcome her addiction. “What most people don’t know about me [is] Snapple was much more than a job. It was a lifeline and it was a way for me to stay sober,” Kaufman says. “And it was a vehicle to do wonderful, nice things for other people.”
The fact is that the campaign brought a lot of attention to Wendy. People simply loved her. And she had no idea why as well as she could not be sadder because she had wasted almost 10 years with her cocaine addiction.
Wendy re-evaluated all her life and in 2008, she decided to leave Snapple. It wasn’t easy to let go of the “Snapple Lady” but, as she says, “I had to embrace that the personal part of me was far greater than the Snapple persona and that it was time to move on.”
Currently living in Massachusetts, Wendy is writing a book about the time when she was the “Snapple Lady”. She also helps her husband with his furniture business, an old college friend that she reconnected with after the advertisement. They have been married since 2004.
It’s never too late to recover from an addiction. Either cocaine, heroin, alcohol or any other substance. There’s always time to ask for help.