NEW YORK — Talk show diva Wendy Williams feels lucky to be alive after more than a decade of cocaine abuse and now wants to help others be present in their own lives.

Williams has been giving back through the Hunter Foundation, created with husband Kevin Hunter, since 2014. The two recently added a new anti-drug initiative, BeHere.org. Their goal is to raise $10 million in five years to fund things such as drug treatment facilities and research, the latter focused on K2.

“It’s very pretty packaging,” Williams said recently of the popular and potentially deadly synthetic marijuana. “It looks like a pack of Pop Rocks. The kids are smoking it. Adults smoke it. It’s not just a city thing. It’s an easy access thing. You can walk into a bodega and grab a loaf of bread and some K2.”

Williams detailed her own drug abuse in her 2003 memoir, “Wendy’s Got the Heat,” written with Karen Hunter. Williams began as a cocaine dabbler. Her habit grew to 3 grams a day over a decade in broadcasting, first in radio. She said she quit on her own without the use of rehab or any assistance.

“I woke up one day and said, you know, I’ve never been arrested. I’ve never shamed my family by being arrested,” Williams said. “My job has never fired me, although they looked in my eyes and they knew I was high, but I was also making great ratings so they chose to just deal with it. … I woke up and I said, let me move along with my life.”

Substance abuse and addiction are discussed and dealt with much more openly today, but there’s a long way to go before complete acceptance, she said: “People are embarrassed. People don’t want to talk about it.”

– From news service reports

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