Beaches, tabloids, and loads of cocaine. It looked like Yasmine Bleeth had a long and successful acting career ahead of her, but her time on and off the set of Baywatch wasn't all fun in the sun.
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00:00Beaches, tabloids, and loads of cocaine.
00:03It looked like Yasmine Bleeth had a long and successful acting career ahead of her.
00:07But her time on and off the set of Baywatch wasn't all fun and the sun.
00:12Yasmine Bleeth struggled with substance abuse as a way to forget her problems, and it greatly
00:17impacted her life and her career.
00:19Her work on Baywatch had earned her a large and loyal fan following, but this didn't stop
00:23her from feeling overwhelmed due to her drug habit.
00:26In a 2012 oral history of Baywatch that appeared in Esquire, Bleeth's castmate Tracy Bingham
00:31commented on her cocaine addiction, saying,
00:33"'Who does that, really?'
00:35To the point where she's so out of the business now, completely M.I.A."
00:39But Bleeth was also honest about her substance abuse, notably in an essay she wrote for Glamour
00:44in February 2003.
00:46In the essay, she acknowledged she made mistakes and spoke on the difficulties of staying clean.
00:51She claimed that many circumstances triggered her desire to use drugs.
00:55She said,
00:56"'Consciously trying to stay off drugs is now part of my life and it always will be,
01:00but I'm happy to do what I have to do.'"
01:02Bleeth also addressed how she was making the necessary changes in her life and trying to
01:06take pleasure in the simple things.
01:08She wrote,
01:09"'Now I'll stay in bed for two days and tell my friends and family, come on over, the door's
01:12open.'"
01:14Perhaps the most significant impact of Yasmine Bleeth's drug use on her career is that she
01:19was fired from the show that had catapulted her to a global audience.
01:23In Esquire's 2012 Oral History, screenwriter Douglas Schwartz discussed Bleeth's termination
01:28from Baywatch in 1997.
01:30He said,
01:31"[Bleeth was doing drugs at the time and so we were dealing with Yasmine not showing up
01:35and having difficulties, again with men.
01:37That's why we let Yasmine go off the show, because it was too difficult to deal with
01:41her after a while."
01:42Bleeth commented on the relationship issues Schwartz had alluded to in her penned Glamour
01:47article, saying,
01:48"'The way I saw it, cocaine was easing me through the problems I was still having with
01:52my boyfriend.
01:53On cocaine, I didn't think about the problems.
01:55I had no pain.'"
01:57Yasmine Bleeth got specific about her love life in her 2003 Glamour essay.
02:02She recounted the challenges she went through in her relationship with businessman Paul
02:06Cerrito, whom she met at a rehab center in Malibu.
02:09Their arrangement was long-distance, as Bleeth often needed to work on-location in San Francisco,
02:14while Cerrito remained in Los Angeles.
02:16The difficulties of a long-distance relationship made Bleeth start questioning her belief in
02:21love.
02:22She wrote,
02:23"'You hear about people who are made for each other.
02:24I wanted to be one of those people.
02:26I was tired of feeling hurt.
02:28I was losing faith in love.
02:30I just wanted to feel good again, and I knew an easy way to get that feeling.'
02:33And her loneliness meant falling back on cocaine."
02:36Bleeth revealed,
02:37"'It was like ordering Chinese food.
02:39I made one phone call and they delivered it to my front door.'"
02:42She eventually stopped visiting Cerrito in L.A. and ended their relationship.
02:46But Bleeth and Cerrito eventually found their way back to each other.
02:49The couple reunited and were married in 2002.
02:53Yasmine Bleeth's eventual wedding to Paul Cerrito two years after she met him in rehab
02:58took place at Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara.
03:01In 2001, the couple had been involved in a car accident in Detroit.
03:05As a result of the incident, Bleeth was arrested for cocaine possession, which made headlines.
03:10The moment would change her relationship with Cerrito for the better.
03:13"'Then why did you come back for me?'
03:15Though the couple had attended rehab together, it wasn't long before Bleeth eventually relapsed.
03:20She noted in her Glamour essay that she lost control, saying,
03:23"'Paul and I were talking about marriage and wanted it more than anything, but I had learned
03:27that I couldn't have drugs and love at the same time.
03:30Drugs become your best friend, your lover, your parents, they become everything to you.'"
03:34She claimed that the only reason she and Cerrito were still together was due to their accident,
03:39what she called,
03:40"...divine intervention."
03:43Most may not have been aware of all of the problems Yasmine Bleeth faced during the peak
03:47of her fame.
03:48As Bleeth put it herself in her Glamour essay, she had become a master at concealing what
03:52was wrong and excusing her substance abuse, at least initially.
03:55"'Oh no, I don't really drink.'
03:58"'You don't get them all!'
04:01"'Yeah.
04:02Yeah, not one.'"
04:04Bleeth opened up about her mistakes and the struggles she's endured because of her addiction,
04:08recalling how drugs had taken a toll on her body.
04:11At one point, a doctor discovered that her drug use had led to gangrene in her nose.
04:15She described her nasal damage, recalling that she would blow her nose and pieces of
04:19skin would come out.
04:21Bleeth wrote,
04:22"'I had an infection that had completely eaten out the inside of my nose, leaving it raw
04:26and bloody.'"
04:27Bleeth's doctor informed her of the severity of the infection, which, if left untreated,
04:31could have reached her brain and been fatal.
04:34Although she made an attempt to get sober, her habit resumed just six weeks later.
04:40Despite Yasmine Bleeth's cocaine addiction impacting her life in numerous ways, she still
04:45had a strong support system, most notably in her dad.
04:48In her 2003 Glamour essay, Bleeth wrote that while her drug use made a lot of her relationships
04:53unstable, it never broke the bond she had with her dad.
04:56She recalled,
04:57"...during that time we were closer than ever, because when I tried to pull away, he forced
05:01his way back into my life."
05:03In 2001, Bleeth's father picked her up from an airport in Los Angeles, and it wound up
05:07being something of a wake-up call.
05:09Bleeth's appearance had changed.
05:11She'd lost weight and her face was swollen.
05:13She recalled,
05:14"...he took one look at me and started to cry.
05:16He said I looked like a shell of myself.
05:19Seeing the expression on my father's face and knowing his heart was being ripped out
05:22of his body, that was the first time I was truly confronted by how I was affecting other
05:27people."
05:28You guys are lucky to be alive.
05:29You could have been killed out there."
05:32The media continued to cover Yasmine Bleeth's addiction problems closely, usually in an
05:36unflattering light.
05:38Even when Bleeth publicly commented about her journey away from substance abuse and
05:42toward sobriety, the paparazzi seemed to have it in for her.
05:45Bleeth's Baywatch castmate, Gina Lee Nolan, was quick to acknowledge that the media's
05:49treatment of Bleeth was extremely unfair.
05:52In a 2017 interview with Cosmopolitan, Nolan recalled a time when paparazzi were taking
05:57photos of Bleeth close to the set of Baywatch.
05:59She said,
06:00"'I remember Yasmine Bleeth.
06:01She was at the payphone where we filmed.
06:03This was before cellphones, and she scratched her nose, and the inquirer had three pictures
06:07of her, like front cover.
06:09Yasmine Bleeth, there's drugs or whatever.
06:12And at the time when I knew her, there was none of that going on.'"
06:16Very few people look the same now as they did 20 years ago, so it might be a bit of
06:20a surprise that the media still focuses on Yasmine Bleeth's appearance.
06:24While her looks have changed since she was on Baywatch in the 90s, she's now living a
06:28healthy and sober life.
06:30Bleeth doesn't make headlines often these days, choosing to stay away from the limelight.
06:34In 2020, she caught the media's attention again when she was photographed walking her
06:38dog in Southern California.
06:39For the most part, Bleeth has retreated from the public eye, and very little is known about
06:43her life.
06:44Esquire's 2012 Oral History of Baywatch noted that Bleeth lived with husband Paul Cerrito,
06:49and that they had two homes, one in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the other in Los Angeles.
06:54Her name also made headlines in 2017, when TMZ claimed her husband intended to sue Disney
06:59for causing him injury while shooting a series in their home.
07:04In addition to her troubles with both drugs and the media's obsession with ongoing changes
07:08in her appearance, Yasmine Bleeth became reliant on what some might call retail therapy.
07:13Bleeth admitted that the satisfaction of shopping online began to replace her cocaine addiction,
07:17and she's revealed that she spent thousands of dollars at a time.
07:21She wrote in her essay for Glamour that shopping was the most important part of what had developed
07:25into a series of nightly post-work rituals.
07:28This also included activities like rearranging her linen closet, making photo albums of
07:33her time on TV, and dancing to music.
07:35But Bleeth disclosed that mostly, she would shop on the internet, ordering from high-end
07:39stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
07:42She wrote,
07:43"'It was the biggest joke.
07:44I bought all these beautiful things, but I never went out.
07:47Forget the money I was spending on drugs, I'd spend literally $5,000 to $10,000 in one-night
07:52shopping on the web.
07:53I was obsessed.
07:55Shopping was instant gratification, just like the drugs.'"
07:59Yasmine Bleeth was once a television darling, with a role on one of the most popular shows
08:03of the 90s.
08:05Very little is known about her these days, and she has mostly continued to stay out of
08:08the limelight.
08:09But in 2021, Bleeth returned to acting with an appearance in the movie Whack the Don.
08:13The comedy also stars Richard Grieco, who Bleeth was previously in a relationship with.
08:18But Bleeth remains notoriously private.
08:21The question of what may have become of her career had she not had a terrible substance
08:25abuse problem will never be answered.
08:28Bleeth seems to be retired from acting and living a quiet life.
08:31In 2012, Baywatch screenwriter Michael Burke noted in Esquire that her life changed due
08:36to her continued fight to stay sober.
08:38Burke said,
08:39"'I know she gets offers that she turns down.
08:41She was an actress at the time she was a little girl.
08:43She was very smart with her money, and I think she invested well.'"
08:48If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
08:52Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
08:56SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP 4357.