\nBeing a Hollywood star isn\u2019t always as glamorous as it seems\u2014your private life is constantly under the microscope. And when you\u2019ve faced real-life struggles, the speculation only intensifies. But one celebrity who has taken control of his own story is TV host and actor Drew Carey.\n
Talking openly about difficult and tragic experiences is never easy, but I hope Drew\u2019s heartbreaking journey can encourage others to speak out about their own struggles. You don\u2019t have to do it in public, but Drew has used his platform time and time again to help those who\u2019ve been through their own horrors.\n
What many may not know about Drew Carey, 66, is that his childhood was tough.\n His father passed away from a heart attack when Drew was just 8 years old \u2014something that understandably left a huge impact on the young boy\u2019s psyche. School wasn\u2019t easy for him either, as he was expelled twice for poor academic performance.\n But it was the sudden death of his father that cast a dark shadow over his early years growing up in Cleveland, Ohio.\n \u201cMy dad died when I was a kid, and soon after that, I started biting my nails,\u201d he shared.\n \u201cIt got so bad that I was biting my cuticles, the pads of my fingers, tearing the skin until they bled. It hurt to even hold a pencil, and I was ashamed of how my hands looked.\u201d\n Drew and his two brothers were raised by their mother, who worked two jobs to make ends meet.\n \u201dI have been in a lot of desperate situations,\u201d Drew told the Kirkland Reporter in 2010.\n He also revealed that he was once molested, struggled with bouts of depression, and made two suicide attempts by swallowing a large number of sleeping p!lls.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Drew Carey may be known for his quick wit and charm as a beloved TV host, but behind the laughter lies a ha’unting tragedy. The murder of his former fianc\u00e9e, Amie Harwick, continues to cast a dark shadow over his life. Inside Drew Carey\u2019s traumatic childhood Being a Hollywood star isn\u2019t always as glamorous as\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[693],"class_list":{"0":"post-111871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Drew-Carey-e1738936700429.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111875,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111871\/revisions\/111875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}