Saturday, August 25, 2007

Grammer Opens Up About Addictions

In the summer of 1975, actor Kelsey Grammer 's 18-year-old sister, Karen, was abducted in Colorado Springs, Colo., raped and slashed. Abandoned, she bled to death.

Now Grammer, 52, wants to confront her killer.

"Recently, I got news that the man who did this to Karen is now eligible for parole," he tells Dotson Rader of Parade magazine. "There is a hearing sometime later this year that I will attend. I am angry about him. I never had the opportunity to speak for my sister before. I will now."

Grammer, who was only 20 at the time of his sister's murder, says his grief over her murder "was probably the catalyst that got me into a really big problem for at least the next 15 years."

Despite his professional success on the hit shows "Cheers" and "Frasier," his drinking worsened and he experimented with a variety of drugs, including ecstasy, valium and cocaine. He was arrested twice and later served 90 days house arrest and three years probation.

His chaotic relationships only added to his troubles.

"I'm attracted to threshold experiences — to chaos, insanity, mayhem," he says, "so I was drawn to women who were dramatic, emotional and unpredictable, with great sexual energy. I liked surprises. I liked women who could be demonstrative, demanding, socially unacceptable. While I was dealing with those desires, I was also trying to reconcile how I was actually living my life with how I thought my life should be lived — the traditional idea of a normal existence with a wife, a family."

After a string of failed marriages, Grammer finally found a normal existence with his current wife Camille Donatacci, whom he met in 1996.

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