Oscar nominations and a 'public embarassment': Jamie Lee Curtis' Hollywood upbringing.

Jamie Lee Curtis has always known fame.

As the second daughter of Hollywood icons, actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Curtis was surrounded by celebrity, wealth and status. But that's not to say everything was peachy.

When Curtis was three, her mother and father separated. It had been quite the shock to Curtis' mum Janet, who was away on a film project in 1962 when she received the news that her husband had filed for divorce.

But it was the reason that caused quite the stir among Hollywood circles, because Tony had left his wife for 17-year-old German actress Christine Kaufmann, whom he met while filming.

Curtis later reflected on the divorce, saying about her parents: "Janet suffered public embarrassment as Tony chose a 17-year-old replacement, a German actress with whom he was working, and she felt the slings and arrows of tabloid gossip and innuendo."

It was in fact a messy divorce, but once things were finalised on September 14, 1962, Janet married stockbroker Robert Brandt in Las Vegas. They remained married until her death in 2004. As for Tony, he married the German actress in 1963 – who at that point was now 18, and he was in his late 30s. The pair went on to have two children before divorcing in 1968, Tony passing away 2010.

Being a product of "a lot of divorces", Curtis said it was particularly tough. Throughout her childhood, she was raised by her mother and stepfather Robert Brandt, not seeing her dad Tony very much. 

In an interview with Variety, she shared that her father had a difficult relationship with all his kids.

"There was a period of time where I was the only child that was talking to him," she said.

After school, Curtis went to college but soon decided to drop out and pursue becoming an actor in Los Angeles. By 1977, Curtis had made her acting debut on a bunch of TV shows, before going into films the following year.

But it all really started with the iconic movie Halloween. It was her first feature film, and she starred as babysitter Laurie Strode in the slasher flick. At the time she was just 19 and Halloween undoubtedly launched her into the spotlight. 

Jamie Lee Curtis in the 1978 film Halloween. Image: Compass International Pictures. Over the next few years, Curtis continued to act, landing a bunch of notable horror films. One of them, The Fog, she co-starred in with her mother Janet. Curtis later acknowledged that it was her parent's connection to the entertainment industry that helped her get a foot in the door.

"It's important for me, given that I'm this bougie princess from Los Angeles – even if I claim I worked hard, I've never really worked hard a day in my life," Curtis told The New Yorker in 2019.

"When you're famous, you get this incredible access, you get opportunities to see things that other people don't get to see, you get ease of access everywhere you go. All of that is a great, lovely benefit to the part that you give up, which is your privacy. So it's a balance."

In 1983, she scored another breakthrough in the film Trading Places, which starred Eddie Murphy. Curtis went on to win a BAFTA Award for best supporting actor for the role.

And who could forget in 1985 when she portrayed a fitness instructor struggling to trust a reporter portrayed by John Travolta in the romantic drama Perfect. To the film's premiere she took her new husband Christopher Guest with her. 

Their first encounter went as follows: Curtis bumped into Guest at a restaurant in West Hollywood, and he called her the next day. Two months later the couple was engaged, and then married in 1984.

They've been together ever since. 

Reflecting on the ups and downs of marriage, Curtis said to Hello Magazine: "If you're telling me anybody who's married for a long time hasn't thought 'I hate them, I want out,' of course they have! I believe if you stay on the bus long enough, the scenery will change! That's the reality of long marriage. It's the safety of knowing his car is in the garage, that I'm not alone, and that he's here."

By the early 1990s, Curtis was a household name, winning many awards for her work, including a Golden Globe for her role alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action comedy True Lies.

But around the same time, Curtis was going through quite a private trauma. And it had started when she decided to take a handful of Vicodin painkiller tablets with a glass of wine. It was a habit that had begun when she was prescribed painkillers following a cosmetic surgery nearly a decade earlier.

Watch Jamie Lee Curtis speak about her addiction to opiods and alcohol. Post continues below.

In 1998, Curtis picked up a copy of Esquire and came across an article by a writer about his addiction to Vicodin.

"He wrote about how he didn't know where his marriage certificate or his daughter's birth certificate was but that he knew where every Vicodin was in his house," Curtis said to AARP. "There were two in the tip of his left cowboy boot, one under the bill of his Cubs cap … and I recognised all the secrecy and the obsession and that was me."

In February of 1999, Curtis entered rehab, and she's been sober from drugs and alcohol since. Without sobriety, Curtis says she would be "dead for sure".

Addiction was also something that her extended family dealt with. 

One of Curtis' step brothers, Nicholas Curtis, died of a heroin overdose when he was only 23.

In July 1993, Nicholas was found dead at a friend's house in Massachusetts after suffering a seizure. It was later confirmed Nicholas died from a heroin overdose. By March 1995, three men were arrested in connection with his death and charged with manslaughter and distribution of heroin.

In 2003, his dad Tony told the Cape Cod Times that losing his "sweet boy" was the only regret he had. "It's a terrible thing when a father loses his son."

Curtis later said that the loss of her brother brought the whole family together, but didn't help her relationship with her father, Tony.

"He was not a father, and he was not interested in being a father," Curtis shared. "It's not a slant against him; he was very clear. He did what he was supposed to do from a financial standpoint, which was honourable of him, but he was not an involved father."

But Curtis has said she and her husband have made sure to have a completely different parenting style, raising their two adopted children – Annie and Ruby – with lots of love.

And it's a sense of love and acceptance that made Ruby feel comfortable to come out as transgender, Curtis saying that she and her husband "have watched in wonder and pride as our son became our daughter".

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In an interview with People, Curtis spoke of how adapting to their new family is a journey, but that she is ready to listen and learn.

"It's speaking a new language," she said. "It's learning new terminology and words. I am new at it. I am not someone who is pretending to know much about it. And I'm going to blow it, I'm going to make mistakes. I would like to try to avoid making big mistakes."

The bond between mother and daughter is strong, and Curtis is a fierce champion for Ruby and her family.

"This is our family's experience. I am here to support Ruby. That is my job. Just as it is to care and love and support her older sister Annie in her journeys. I'm a grateful student. I'm learning so much from Ruby. The conversation is ongoing."

As for what the future holds for Curtis, she has resumed acting again, coming back to star in a slate of Halloween sequels. She also starred in Knives Out, alongside Ana de Armas and Daniel Craig. 

But Curtis said she hopes her return to film will show people what older women look like – because more diverse representation is needed when it comes to ageing in Hollywood.

"I am an advocate for natural beauty. I had plastic surgery, it didn't work, and it made me feel worse," the 63-year-old said recently.

"I'm an advocate for not f**king with your face. This term anti-ageing – what? What are you talking about? We're all going to f**king age! We're all going to die. Why do you want to look 17 when you're 70? I want to look 70 when I'm 70."

If this post brought up any issues for you, you can contact Drug Aware, Australia's 24hr alcohol and drug support line. You can reach them on (08) 9442 5000 or 1800 198 024.

Feature Image: Instagram @jamieleecurtis.

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