Wow: Columbus Short Keeps It 100 on Drugs, Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes and His Ex-Wife
Columbus Short is currently promoting his new project, True to the Game, and stopped by The Wendy Williams Show to chop it up on the purple couch. While there, he left no stone unturned, touching on everything from abusing drugs and alcohol to getting fired from Scandal.
Short kicked off the extremely transparent interview by speaking out on his "toxic relationship" with his ex-wife, Brandi Short, responding to rumors that he physically abused her.
"Was I abusing drugs and alcohol? Yes," he said. "Have I ever abused a woman? Never. Maybe with my words, possibly, but I've never put my hands on a woman."
Commenting specifically on his tumultuous relationship with his now ex-wife, who he says "took all of his money," he added that she has strategically kept their daughter from him for three years now.
"I haven't seen her," he said in reference to his daughter. "... in three years... I'm campaigning to get my life back and everything's lining up the way it's supposed to be."
See Short and his ex-wife in happier times, below:
Here's to Short continuing to stay on the straight and narrow.
Learn more on Scandal's final season in the BET Breaks video, above.
The conversation quickly turned to his confirmed drug addiction, with the actor speaking quite openly about that troubling time in his life. When Wendy asked if he was "doing a lot of coke," he quietly responded, "yeah," before adding that he had an inkling that his former Scandal co-stars knew of his drug problem. In fact, he mentioned that the show's leading lady, Kerry Washington, confronted him privately on a few occasions, urging him to "pull it together."
"Kerry yanked my coat tails a couple times," he said. "[She would say] 'Pull it together,' basically. We're in a high-powered, high-octane situation."
He added that instead of getting upset during their exchange, he would get embarrassed.
Short explained, though, that his drug practices were kept on the down low, away from his professional life, completely.
"I wouldn't show up to work high," he clarified. "It was a very secretive thing for me. So we'd [the cast] get together a lot, so when I'm dipping off and going to the bathroom... you know. Me, I was off. The thing about addiction is you think you're getting off on people and you're not and the only person you're fooling is yourself."
On the bright side, however, his days of substance abuse are now behind him as he revealed that he is now completely sober.
"They had my back all the way to the top," he said of the Scandal cast.
When asked if he went to rehab to treat his addiction, he said he did, and the show fully funded his treatment.
In fact, he sang nothing but praises about his former boss, Shonda Rhimes, who he said, "had his back like he was her family."
Rounding out his comeback story, Short spoke on his new film, True to the Game, adding that he "basically begged" Vivica A. Fox to be a part of it, and she ultimately agreed.
Check out the full interview, below:
Since the interview aired, Twitter has been ablaze with opinions about the actor's words. Take a look, below:
