Ted Williams Mom: Seeing Him Was Like a Dream
NEW YORK -- From homeless to famous in just a few days. And reunited with his mother.
Ted Williams, the man with the velvet voice, and his mom, Julia Williams, finally got to lay eyes on each other after a decade apart yesterday afternoon, and hug and hug, and cry. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" Ted said as he approached her. It was all caught by "Early Show" cameras.
Both sat down with "Early Show" co-anchors Erica Hill and Chris Wragge today.
Ted said he "really can't" believe what's happened to him.
"It's just been crazy."
Seeing Ted again, Julia told Wragge and Hill, "seemed like it's all a dream. It's not true, it's all a dream."
Reporter Who Discovered Ted Williams Speaks Out
Pictures: Ted Williams: Before and After"
"It was just so beautiful," she added, "like, 'Is this him? Are we together?"'
"I knew he would be overjoyed with all of this," Julia continued, "and I said, 'Is this the son, my little son, Prodigal Son has come back home."'
When he saw her again, "I just lost it," Ted said. "It finally got to that moment where the armpits started sweating, and she just sat there and was like, 'Hi!' Yeah, it was beautiful. It was a beautiful moment."
Ted was spotted by a reporter panhandling on the side of an interstate highway ramp in Columbus, Ohio. The reporter made a video of Williams that went viral on YouTube, attracting more than 13 million hits. Then, he appeared in an exclusive interview on "The Early Show" Wednesday, and has been swamped with job offers ever since. He told him mom he's already voiced commercials for Kraft Mac & Cheese. He'll be paid $10,000 for recording four ads.
But Ted's past is checkered, with drug and alcohol addictions he says he's now free of, as well as numerous arrests for alleged crimes including theft and forgery.
Ted and Julia both acknowledged that his sudden fame and good fortune would make it more challenging for him to stay free of drugs and alcohol. Ted expressed optimism his belief in God would get him through.
Julia said she is "very concerned, very concerned."
"Well," Ted remarked, "I guess that's rightfully said, because two years is not a great length of sobriety enough to say that I've got this mastered. It's one day at a time. But with all of this crazy adulation and all of this -- as a matter of fact, I was talking to a therapist, a psychologist, and I was telling her, I said, 'You know, I'm not bipolar and I've never taken any type of psychotropic medications, but being a recovering addict, I had to be careful of any -- because I wanted a nerve pill yesterday, to be perfectly honest with you. And she said, 'Listen, you need to learn to meditate and not medicate."
Of all the job offers coming his way, Ted said he's seriously considering one from the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association, whom he "adores."
Ted also said he wishes he and Julia could live closer to one another. "If I could fly her back (from) New York, relocate her so that we could go out to pasture together, I would love to do that. But my mother has linked herself to New York -- I can't even pry her away from her abode in Brooklyn."
To see the full interview, click below:
To watch the emotional mother-and-child reunion, click on the video below:
Doral Chenoweth, the Columbus Dispatch reporter who discovered Ted Williams on the side of the road in Ohio, spoke with Wragge and Hill today:
More "Early Show" videos, of our interviews of Julia yesterday and Ted on Wednesday:
Video: Ted Williams' Mom on His Sudden Fame
Video: Ted Williams' New "Golden" Life
Copyright 2011 CBS. All rights reserved. Ted Williams, the man with the velvet voice, and his mom, Julia Williams, finally got to lay eyes on each other after a decade apart yesterday afternoon, and hug and hug, and cry. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" Ted said as he approached her. It was all caught by "Early Show" cameras.
Both sat down with "Early Show" co-anchors Erica Hill and Chris Wragge today.
Ted said he "really can't" believe what's happened to him.
"It's just been crazy."
Seeing Ted again, Julia told Wragge and Hill, "seemed like it's all a dream. It's not true, it's all a dream."
Reporter Who Discovered Ted Williams Speaks Out
Pictures: Ted Williams: Before and After"
"It was just so beautiful," she added, "like, 'Is this him? Are we together?"'
"I knew he would be overjoyed with all of this," Julia continued, "and I said, 'Is this the son, my little son, Prodigal Son has come back home."'
When he saw her again, "I just lost it," Ted said. "It finally got to that moment where the armpits started sweating, and she just sat there and was like, 'Hi!' Yeah, it was beautiful. It was a beautiful moment."
Ted was spotted by a reporter panhandling on the side of an interstate highway ramp in Columbus, Ohio. The reporter made a video of Williams that went viral on YouTube, attracting more than 13 million hits. Then, he appeared in an exclusive interview on "The Early Show" Wednesday, and has been swamped with job offers ever since. He told him mom he's already voiced commercials for Kraft Mac & Cheese. He'll be paid $10,000 for recording four ads.
But Ted's past is checkered, with drug and alcohol addictions he says he's now free of, as well as numerous arrests for alleged crimes including theft and forgery.
Ted and Julia both acknowledged that his sudden fame and good fortune would make it more challenging for him to stay free of drugs and alcohol. Ted expressed optimism his belief in God would get him through.
Julia said she is "very concerned, very concerned."
"Well," Ted remarked, "I guess that's rightfully said, because two years is not a great length of sobriety enough to say that I've got this mastered. It's one day at a time. But with all of this crazy adulation and all of this -- as a matter of fact, I was talking to a therapist, a psychologist, and I was telling her, I said, 'You know, I'm not bipolar and I've never taken any type of psychotropic medications, but being a recovering addict, I had to be careful of any -- because I wanted a nerve pill yesterday, to be perfectly honest with you. And she said, 'Listen, you need to learn to meditate and not medicate."
Of all the job offers coming his way, Ted said he's seriously considering one from the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association, whom he "adores."
Ted also said he wishes he and Julia could live closer to one another. "If I could fly her back (from) New York, relocate her so that we could go out to pasture together, I would love to do that. But my mother has linked herself to New York -- I can't even pry her away from her abode in Brooklyn."
To see the full interview, click below:
To watch the emotional mother-and-child reunion, click on the video below:
Doral Chenoweth, the Columbus Dispatch reporter who discovered Ted Williams on the side of the road in Ohio, spoke with Wragge and Hill today:
More "Early Show" videos, of our interviews of Julia yesterday and Ted on Wednesday:
Video: Ted Williams' Mom on His Sudden Fame
Video: Ted Williams' New "Golden" Life
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please seek professional help.
Thank you and God Bless.
Mr. Williams' toughest days are ahead. He's been sober for two years - or at least so he says. I'm not trying to be snarky but as someone who's been involved (sometimes too deeply) with folks who have tried again and again; then failed again and again, I am only too uncomfortably aware of his chances.
I hope he makes it. I hope Lindsay Lohan makes it. I even hope Andrew Gallo "makes it" (even if he does so in a 6 X 8 foot box). I hope everyone who has had to struggle with Alcohol and/or drugs makes it. Chemical dependency is a pluperfect bi*ch and there is nothing that pushes recovering addicts off the wagon like stress. And, boy howdy does Ted Williams ever have it in heaps now.....
Mr. Williams the rest of this is for you. You have a fabulous gift and your training in radio tells me you were aware of it for a long time. You are incredibly fortunate that your life on the streets hasn't ruined it. You are additionally fortunate that someone decided, apparently on a whim, to post your "auditions" on the web. The rest is, as we say, history. This has given you that second chance that many do not get and several posters on this thread feel you do not deserve.
If there is a take-away from all this, it is this:
You are not recovered, your two and some years of sobriety not withstanding. In fact you will very likely never "recover". You are recover-ING. You will not be able to maintain this alone. Please do not be afraid to seek help; there will be times that you WILL need it and whether it is from professional counselors, friends or relatives or God Himself is really irrelevant. I say all this running the risk I am preaching to the choir and that I may be "telling my Grandmother how to suck eggs". But I am a lot closer in age to your mother than I am to you and I have way more experience at seeing (and living) the effects of chronic excess alcohol consumption than I have ever needed or wanted.
You have my admiration for seizing this new opportunity and I hope you succeed. Good luch and God bless.