Mary Cosby’s son, Robert Jr., revealed his battle with drug addiction during an emotional conversation on Wednesday’s episode of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”
After expressing how concerned she was with her son being “very absent,” Cosby sat down with Robert Jr. and asked him to tell her the “honest truth.”
“What are we doing?” Cosby asked Robert Jr. after walking into his room and seeing him in bed. “You got to be real. You got to talk to me.”
Robert Jr., 21, hesitated for a few seconds before confessing to his mom, “I’m taking Xanax” –– a sedative medication that can be used to treat anxiety.
“I just took half to chill me out, and then I take an Adderall to balance out Xanax,” he shared.
Cosby, 52, tearfully asked her son if he was “unhappy” or if he saw what he was doing as a “problem.”
“No. I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like, I don’t know, life is like just chicken unseasoned, but I don’t know. When I get high, it’s adding seasoning to it,” he explained.
Robert Jr. went on to confess that he started taking the drugs when he “just turned 16.”
“At first, I was like, I’m just gonna stick to natural stuff. And then, I went to a party, and someone gave me a Xanax. And then I was like, ‘Oh, I like this,’ so I started buying it,” he recalled. “Then I started doing Xanax with acid and then molly with Xanax, because I like Xanax, so i mixed it with everything –– Xanax and cocaine.”
Cosby appeared stunned and repeatedly said, “Oh my God,” before Robert Jr. further told her that he also had a problem with the addictive painkiller, OxyContin.
“You know the regular, 30 milligram Oxys?” he asked her. “I noticed this was like a turning point for me was, like, I was taking 10 at once, and I couldn’t even feel it. I couldn’t feel it at all.”
Cosby continued crying and told her son that she “won’t judge” him and will “try to help” him, but he also needs to “help [himself].”
“You’re blessed! You wake up every morning. Every day’s a new day, a blessed day, [and] to waste it to get high when God wakes you up every single day, you know how many people didn’t wake up today? You will die,” she told her son through tears.
Robert Jr. replied, “I wanted to die at the time.”
“You know how that would kill me,” she confessed.
Robert Jr. explained that he “felt like a stain” and “felt like this world wasn’t for me.”
“You’re the only reason I didn’t kill myself,” Robert Jr. said while starting to cry.
Cosby expressed how she “love[s] [him] more than anything, more than anything in this world.”
“You’re my friend, you’re my son, you’re my gift,” she told him. “God gave you to me. You’re the only thing that ever made me happy. Before I had you, I was never happy. You came in, and you were so real. You was everything I hoped for in a person.”
Robert Jr. emotionally responded, “I just barely started being happy again.”
“Please, baby, recognize it. Own it, and change it, because you can,” she encouraged him.
They ended their emotional conversation by sharing an intimate hug and telling each other how much they love the other.
Cosby recently shared an update about her son with Page Six, saying that Robert Jr. is now “steady” and “healthy.”
“It gets worse before it gets better, and you guys will see that all come out,” she told us last week. “It’s so heartfelt, and it’s real. It’s our real life, and I don’t know if reality TV has ever reached this point.”
The Bravolebrity admitted that it was a “breaking point” between the two of them, and the whole conversation “shocked” her.
“He’s working on himself, on telling lies, he’s working on himself, on being honest with me and not trying to deceive me, and so that right there, I think just those little changes has bettered our relationship, because that’s more trust, more love and loving me in the right way, not taking advantage of mom,” she continued.
“The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo with new episodes streaming the next day on Peacock.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 800-662-4357.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.