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I am honored to interview Mr. Christopher Kennedy Lawford on the podcast this week. Mr. Kennedy Lawford has written the new book Moments of Clarity, Voices from the Front Lines of Addiction and Recovery. In the book the author has interviewed and collected stories from both famous and non-famous addiction survivors, among others Martin Sheen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Alec Baldwin and Richard Dreyfuss. They all speak candidly about their moments of clarity, moments that changed their lives and led them on a path out of addiction. This is something Christopher Kennedy Lawford himself has experienced on a very personal level.
Christopher Kennedy Lawford comes from a mix of political and Hollywood royalty. He is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and his father was the famous rat-packer and Hollywood star Peter Lawford. Christopher spent his childhood alternating between the beaches of Malibu, where Frank Sinatra was a frequent guest and the Kennedy compound in Cape Cod with his many cousins and famous Uncles.
In the interview Mr Kennedy Lawford talks about being the product of “an addictive perfect storm”. At age 13 both his beloved uncles had been assassinated, his parents divorced and in the midst of their own addiction issues and Christopher started on a path of drugs and alcohol that nearly killed him.
Mr Kennedy Lawford has been sober for several decades and holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Harvard. He is an actor (his films include Terminator 3 and 13 Days), he is a producer and has authored several books including his memoir Symptoms of Withdrawal. Today he focuses much of his life on public service, working for the Joseph P Kennedy Jr. Foundation, the Special Olympics and is a frequent speaker around the US on public policy issues concerning Mental Health, Addiction and Hepatitis C.
Mr Kennedy Lawford has 3 children and lives in California with his girlfriend and her daughter.
