President Gerald Ford's former chief of staff, Bob Barrett, shared the events that led to former first lady Betty Ford's recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, the UK Daily Mail reported. Her healing led to the creation of the Betty Ford Foundation which has saved countless others from the throes of addiction.
Since its founding in 1982, the Betty Ford Center has become the destination for the rich and fabulous who are also addicts. However, before that ever happened, Betty Ford needed saving.
In his new book Inside the President's Team: Family, Service, and the Gerald Ford Presidency, Barrett gives a glimpse into the inner workings of the family's ordeal. The former first lady became addicted to pills after being prescribed opioids for a pinched nerve.
Betty Ford's substance abuse would escalate to an addiction to alcohol and a host of other pills. How her family dealt with it would change the trajectory of many lives.
Barrett recounted Ford's daily routine when she was at her worst. "I had watched her pour a large glass of vodka over ice at nine every morning and nurse it until four in the afternoon," Barrett said.
"She would then pour another that lasted until dinner, when the drinks began to flow more freely. Far too many nights, I had seen her end the evening in an extreme state of intoxication," he added.
However, it would be in the years after President Ford left office when the family would reach out to Barrett for help. "Mom’s going to die if we don’t do something," Susan, the Fords' youngest daughter, told Barrett on March 31, 1978.
"We’re going to do this intervention thing with her. You’ve got to get him home," Susan said, referring to her father, Gerald Ford, who was in Maryland to give a speech.
Barrett said in his book that he knew that turning Susan down "was clearly not an option" and described her as "the perfect blend of her mother and her father: tough, beautiful, and smart." Barrett found a substitute to give a speech in for the former president's place and booked him on the next flight back to California to "ambush his wife."
The family held the intervention for Betty Ford at home. Twelve of her closest loved ones shared with the former first lady all of the ways her addiction impacted them.
Her children spoke, including Susan, who went last. "Mom, when I was little, and even as I grew up, I always admired you for being a dancer. I wanted to be just like you," she told her mother.
"But now, these days, you’re falling and clumsy. You’re not the same person. And I’ve talked to you about things - things that were important to me, and the next day you didn’t even remember," Susan added.
Betty Ford would enter rehab and successfully kick her addictions with the support of her husband and family. She later launched a clinic in Rancho Mirage in 1982 and treated actress Elizabeth Taylor the following year. Others, including Ozzy Osbourne, Drew Barrymore, Robert Downy Jr., and many others, have also gotten well at the Betty Ford Center.
Barrett's account underscores Betty Ford's impact on people fighting addiction. It was her humility in admitting that she had a problem that led to a place of hope and freedom from addiction.
