Addicted: Model Misbehavior

Janice Dickinson was the original supermodel. In her prime in the mid-1970's, her face appeared regularly on the covers of fashion magazines.

Janice, now 47, was on top of her profession, but over the top with her addictions. By her own account, she was out of control.

"I was the loudest and the wildest. I liked the money, the attention was great, the clothes, the limos, the planes," she says. Bill Lagattuta reports.

She was hooked on the spotlight: "Just being so in demand. That's what I got off on."

"Janice was — is — vibrant, amazing, fantastic," says hairdresser Harry King. "We were all over-the-top. It was the times. You had to be over the top, otherwise you wouldn't be famous."

Part of the problem, Dickinson says, was constantly being told that she was beautiful. "It was very destructive, because what happened to me was I began to believe it," she says.

Then there were the men. "I'd need an accounting firm to remember," she says, laughing, of all the men she has slept with. Among those on the list: Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Bruce Willis, and Liam Neeson.

She has also slept with Sylvester Stallone. At the time, the tabloids suggested that he was the father of her daughter. "He was one of the contenders. I had a lucky month that month," she says. "It just so happens I am a famous supermodel and I slept with more than one man that month. And, oops, I got pregnant."

"I have no shame," she says. "Well, I have a little bit of shame. I didn't sleep with one of the Beatles."

But she did sleep with one of the Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger. "When I was being followed by Mick, I really didn't fancy him," she says. "He pursued me. He was Mick Jagger, you know? I had a good story for my grandchildren. I dated the lead singer of the Rolling Stones and he was great."

She says she is proud of her relationships: "Hell, yeah. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same. Yes, I'm very proud."

She has lived a life of extreme excess. "Drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping, plastic surgery. Anything I could do to escape, to numb myself."

Janice says she was numbing herself to erase the effects of her childhood. Her mother was detached, she says, while her father sexually abused one of her sisters, and physically and verbally abused her. "Every time, I look at a photograph of my father, I get vivid memories. They always come back and I wish they'd stop," she says, crying.

"He would say to me, 'You'll never amount to anything. You're nothing but a two-bit punk. You should have been born a boy, you're just—you're less than zero.' He said this on a daily basis. I developed severe low self esteem," she says.

"It was awful, but as I was hearing them, I knew that I was better than what he was saying—it just fueled me to strive for perfection in becoming a model," she says.

After three marriages, she is now a single mother to 8-year-old Savannah and 14-year-old Nathan.

These days, she still does some modeling, and she's written a book about her glory days, filled with all the personal tales of drugs, rock and roll, and sex.

"I wrote the book to help young children. If they're having a problem with their parents, like I did," she says. "Please, tell someone and seek help at an early age, because it could prevent a life of excessive alcoholism and drug abuse, like what happened to me. Please don't make the mistakes I made."

A 12-step program got her past drugs and alcohol, and her children now anchor her life. But Janice still has an addictive drive to succeed, to always be in the limelight.

She says her father's cruel words still drive her. "That's probably stayed with me for the entire career, that's what put me in the spotlight and kept me there. I did prove him wrong, didn't I?"