In her 30s. Our first guest, by the way, this is a daytime exclusive, experienced her first overdose. In her 30s, she discovered she had a serious addiction to pills. Renee Graziano became a famous name in the reality space. On Mob Wife, six seasons, she was on the show because of her ties, her family ties to the mob. Her father, Anthony Grazianna, was a conciliary for a major crime family, made our star on this show. But it is our own personal story that we’re talking about today. Eight months ago, Renee says she died from an overdose on fentanyl. She says that for a year leading up to her near death, everything in her life was falling up part she was burnt out. And today, in a daytime exclusive, her first daytime interview since that incident in September, Renee is ready to talk about it. Tampan, please welcome to our show Renee Graziano.
Thank you. I feel.
Oh, boy. Thank you for joining us. You know, I. We happen to be women past our 30s. Let’s just be honest there. Really.
We don’t look.
It. Would you look fantastic. Thank you. But I wanted to start in your 30s because a lot of things happened before this moment in September. Yeah, and first, I’m happy that you’re here and you’re.
Healthy. So Mike makes me very emotional. So if I cry, forgive me. But it’s a feeling of I’m, I’m relieved. You’re. I’m relieved when I had the opportunity to do my interview on Bunny’s podcast, Jelly Roll, I was so comfortable with her that I just like vomited. Everything came out. This.
All came out on a podcast. Yes. And this is your first sit down. This is live. So absolutely uncensored.
Yes, it is. I just can’t curse everyone. I can’t curse.
I wanna go to the 30s because in your 30s you became addicted to pills. Yes. And that’s when you had your first over your 37? I was.
36. I was two weeks shy of 37 was July 4th,2,007. And I odde, I was given a lot of medication by the doctor, oxyeighties, diet pills, Xanax, this and a third. And I went to my mother’s and I was like, I need help. And I hit the floor. And that’s exactly how my first OD happened. And, you know, I continue throughout my life to do things I shouldn’t have, not ever thinking, oh, I could outday again. Never. Because the consequences for me, I came back. So you don’t think about.
It, right? That’s what I was gonna ask you. And we’ve done shows on people who are struggling with substance abuse and are in the throes of it. I have family members. I have friends, I have people that I love impacted by this. So this is personal for all of us. There’s no judgment here. There’s no judgment here.
Got a judgment out there.
But I, you know, there is this belief that for someone who’s dealing with an addiction that you will hit a rock bottom and that you’ll get better. To me, 36 years old, an overdose in front of your mom would be the rock bottom.
But from it now, far, very far from it. My second overdose, my son actually had a fly from New York to Florida because I was interbated and that’s what he walked into wasn’t enough. It was, if, shame on me as a mom, but yeah, it wasn’t enough. It continued and it continued to grow because my trauma, which I never knew was trauma by growing up as my father’s daughter, I didn’t see anything, but I knew everything. You know what I mean? Like who was being, people were being murdered. And it was around me, not around my father, but it was around me where I was hanging out. And I didn’t realize. That’s trauma. Like it’s trauma when my first boyfriend, you know, he gave me a black eye and his consequence was a broken arm. And that’s trauma because I was, I witnessed. I witness.
It. What’s fascinating, too, it’s trauma, but it’s glamorized trauma because even in the movies or on the show, it’s like my boyfriend hit me. Well, my dad broke his arm. That’s a glamorization of violence because it’s like, that’s cool. My dad broke his.
Arm. No, actually, it wasn’t it worth the opposite for me. So I was treated a very young age. Not tell. Yeah, that’s the word is rat. You don’t tell. And how I experience is my sister used to pick money out of the piggy bank. So one day, my father says, let’s crack the piggy bank and count the money. I was like, little girl puts me on the thing and we crack it. And he’s like, Renee, where’s the money? I said, lot of Chuck it. Boom. Don’t you ever tell on anybody.
That was, that lesson destroyed me. I lived by a man’s way of life, but I was a woman, so I didn’t take it seriously. Like I always knew my father would protect me. But when you witness something, I felt it was my sin and that I was going to be held accountable at sorry at the end of the day because I’m not gonna tell my father because this could happen, it could be worse. So I think for me, I started to clam up. Then going into my marriage, a lot of domestic violence, , domestic violence, the like. And I shut up and I didn’t tell. And when I tried to tell, nobody heard it. Nobody believe me. Oh, she’s crazy. Oh, she’s using. No, I wasn’t. That’s my truth. Because I.
Know at age 14, I think that’s when you first experiment with drugs. Yes. But it was in your 30s. Okay, that it just became this. I don’t know if it’s ever controllable.
You know what? I partied in my younger years. I grew up. Champagne and , that was always around me. I grew up in the Goodfella era. So that’s just what it was. And it was never accessible. It was never like excessive, I’m sorry, it was accessible at all times, but never excessive. Is living the. John, I.
Love you. Thank you. I love you.
But at 36, from the pain medication, my, unfortunately, my ex husband chatted my toxic bone. So the pain medication put me over the edge. And when you’re given two oxy 80s a day and you’re this little skinny girl, you don’t know what’s coming. And then when I had that Oz, I was sexually assaulted in the hospital and it changed the course of my life.