KTLA anchor and reporter Courtney Friel worked at Fox News for six years, and hosted for "Extra," and "E! News." In her new book, titled "Tonight at 10: Kicking Booze & Breaking News," she frames her career around her 10 years of sobriety.
Friel sat down with In-Depth hosts Charles Feldman and Mike Simpson.
"There are people struggling with addiction in every profession," Friel says. She had an intervention from friends and eventually, she stepped away from Fox News to get sober.
In 2009, she went to rehab and started her journey to sobriety.
She admits that it wasn't easy at first. "Now I have healthy coping mechanisms," she says.
Friel says the synapses in her brain just won't allow her to have ONE drink. Since she was 15-years-old, she says, she was that "sloppy" girl and the excess escalated to pills and cocaine.
"In 2009, I was seeing signs it was coming to an end," she says she realized she was either gonna die in her sleep or get caught buying cocaine from "some shady dealer."
Friel talks about seeing a video of herself passed out on the floor, and that's when her intervention happened.
She says she wrote the book and went public because she wanted to help people and talk openly about how to handle daily life -- things such as -- dating, having fun, divorce, stress, kids all while being sober. "That's how it differs from other recovery books out there," Friel says.
Friel also talks about her time at Fox News and meeting Donald Trump.
In her early sobriety days, she'd lost some air time, but she was still meeting with Roger Ailes, and dealing with having to "twirl for him," and Trump, who wasn't the president at the time "hitting on me."
Friel says she left Fox News to come to LA to finish her contract at Fox 11 and when the KTLA opportunity opened, she jumped on it.
She says talking and writing about her sobriety is important because it's in alignment with who she is. "I've always been authentic... I'm very open and transparent about things..." she says.