barbara eden 20/20

this isn't what I think it really is is it yep that's the one that's the bottle was that the bottle that we actually saw on television yes it is that's the bottle that was in the last very last episode shot Barbara Eden almost gave up her Jeannie role because of her son back in 1965 she'd already been married for seven years to TV actor Michael ansara and they'd been trying to start a family she learned she was pregnant on the same day the pilot for I Dream of Jeannie sold right away she went to see the show's producer and he looked at me and said well you're pregnant he was joking chuckles joking and I went yes and I can't do your show I just wanted to let you know really fast so you could replace me oh that's what you were gonna do I mean you were gonna throw away the program oh yeah sure sure but Barbara didn't quit instead the network agreed to shoot around her and for the first 13 episodes they hid her pregnancy with props and veils that August while the series was on hiatus little Matthew was born he had very very black hair when he was born and very long black eyelashes and I had gained a lot of weight being pregnant he was a very fat little baby so he was beautiful dan Sarah's home movies tell the rest of the tale there's Barbara glowing and a proud dad to Matthew the center of both their lives did you want more children yes I did matter of fact we tried but Barbara Eden's dream of a bigger family ended in heartbreak after I Dream of Jeannie went off the air she was pregnant again but this time she lost the baby the umbilical cord in this case it's squashed so the baby was fine until the seventh month and then he died it was a little boy also and because he wasn't getting enough nutrition did you give birth she's a baby I had to they make you carry it you know you can't at least at that time they didn't they wouldn't force the birth until it was ready forgive me did this actually mean that you had to deliver a child that was not alive right mm-hmm yeah Eden says she never considered going to a therapist in retrospect a big mistake because she never really grieved for her lost child she continued working but she broke down and wound up on antidepressants her marriage unraveled and she divorced it was right around this time unbeknownst to her that her son Matthew started using drugs later in his life yes and did you told me that so he'd started when he was 9 or 10 oh yeah he played with some children on our block but apparently the parents were growing pot in their backyard and I guess that's when he started experimenting when Matthew was about 12 Barbara Eden married a Midwestern advertising executive and moved to Chicago she planned to bring her son with her but Matthew wanted to stay in LA and she says her ex-husband threatened to sue for custody so for the next six years Matthew lived with his dad in Southern California while Eden became a commuter mom oh I would see him every third week I would fly back to LA and then I was working here a lot too so I would see him did you feel as if you were abandoning him well I felt that way but I think he probably would have gone to to live with his daddy whether I remarried or not Barbara Eden never stopped working she starred in another television series Harper Valley PTA and Matthew appeared with her in 1983 she divorced husband number two and moved back to Los Angeles to find Matthew a Moody and withdrawn teenager he wasn't the happy warm boy that I'd known while he was attending college in Santa Barbara he nearly killed himself one night in the middle of the night we got a phone call that his truck had been totaled rolled over many times luckily he had only broken his nose and a cracked his clavicle but at the time I didn't think anything of it except God we're lucky but obviously now I know it was drugs now I know how come you didn't know that he was doing drugs No good question good question I think because we didn't know any better where you were you neglectful never were you out of touch with him never but like many parents she didn't recognize the signs Mathew was 19 he'd been using for nearly a decade when she finally learned the horrible truth he was going to school and he left his books here and I saw them and doing go how is he gonna go to class without his books got in the car went down the hill went all through that campus looking for him went to the head office and looked he wasn't enrolled you thought he was going to college right right and then we had a huge argument enormous our first I did face him with drugs I said you're using drugs standings wrong what did he was furious he said why wouldn't I I have a lousy life I mean really you know finally Barbara and Matthew's father forced him into rehab it was the beginning of a 16-year battle according to Eden Matthew was in and out of rehab seven or eight times when he would inevitably relapse she resorted to tough love he was told he did not have a home with me if he was going to use drugs he had to leave and what happened and he left and his father and I were frantic we just we were looking for him everywhere we didn't know where he was we didn't know what he'd he was sleeping on the streets oh yeah Matthew's bouts of homelessness tested his mother's resolve she worried should she help the minute you know that your loved one is under the influence of this horrible drug you do not support them you don't feed them you don't give them money you do nothing I couldn't go that far I would always bring him food wherever he was I bring food did your son ever steal from you to pay for drugs yes he did he had taken money out of my wallet out of friends wallets uh he had stolen silver you locked everything oh you bet I wanted to see my son but I didn't trust him by the time he was 31 Eden says Matthew had turned the corner he was serious about staying off drugs and he was staying sober longer and longer and your son's man he became a dedicated bodybuilder he really bulked up shaved his head who are mustache and started getting movie roles because he was so big he usually played the bad guy he appeared in this prison movie just weeks before he died I think you have to stand up to me good show everybody here you can't be Punk'd I can respect that but I was trying to offer you some advice but more important than the acting career he fell in love his life was on an even track he had a lovely lovely girlies he was engaged to they were going to get married in another month even with all that going for him Matthew found new temptations in the world of bodybuilding he started injecting steroids and on a night in July he drove into this gas station the security camera picked up his truck at about 6:30 p.m. two and a half hours later he was found slumped over his steering wheel and apparently he had taken a hit of heroin and he hadn't had it in quite a while I guess a couple of years it killed him it stopped his heart in Matthews truck investigators found small amounts of heroin marijuana anabolic steroids and a syringe the bottom fell out of my life you're gonna lose me but you you had imagined that this could happen oh I lived with it yes I've lived with it for years why did you believe that it wouldn't happen because he was making progress he was winning the war can your life ever be the same Matt he lost his war but barbara eden is determined not to lose hers she's on a mission to tell parents to get nosy get involved and get help if they suspect anything I was raised in a family that we all had our closets our drawers we never went into someone else's drawers never but I think we have come to a point in our lives now where we have to give up a little bit of that privacy with our children just get in there you get in those drawers you find out what's going on you'll find information about what you can do if you suspect your child has a drug problem at abcnews.com we'll be right back

Channel: J10115

Views: 595,946

Rating: 4.7969203 out of 5

Keywords: barbara, eden, 2020

Id: M0cZnVSw6s8

Length: 9min 51sec (591 seconds)

Published: Sat May 22 2010