Andie MacDowell 'felt responsible' all her life as she started looking after her alcoholic mother from the age of 10
Actress Andie MacDowell has revealed that she has "felt responsible" all her life as she started looking after her alcoholic mother since she was just 10 years old.
The actress revealed that she always had a 'great relationship' with her mother, Paula Johnson, but had to take care of her from a very young age. While living in Gaffney, South Carolina, the actress said she went around at night checking to make sure that her mother had not left any cigarettes burning.
She added that there were many burn marks on the floor as well as on the couch and it was a miracle that the house had not burned down. "I think I've felt responsible all my life. But I'm good at it. I've been in training for a long time," MacDowell shared.
As reported by The Guardian, MacDowell, 61, shared that living with her mother and three other siblings she "always felt loved".
She also tried to getting some help from doctors regarding her mother's alcoholism.
However, when one doctor prescribed valium, she lost all sense of communication with her mother. "That was a bad decision because then I couldn't communicate with her. And I communicated really well with her," MacDowell shared. The doctor had told them that Johnson would die in around 5 years and shockingly, she did.
Johnson was only 53 years old when she died of a heart attack while MacDowell was living in Paris. She had written to MacDowell during the last years of her life where she had told her daughter that she was 'proud' of her.
"She said she had quit drinking and that she was so proud of me. That was the last year of her life and I didn't really get to be around it, which was super sad," MacDowell shared. MacDowell also spoke about her experience in the modeling industry when she started out and revealed she had a 'small experience' with drugs in the start but hated it.