Ray Leonard, who has battled alcoholism and drug addiction, said he has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings online.
One thing missing from Sugar Ray Leonard’s life during the coronavirus lock down: traditional Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Leonard, who has battled alcohol and drug addiction, told the Reuters news service that he has been attending AA meetings for almost 15 years. And while he can’t go to gatherings as he has come to know them, he attends them online.
“I can’t go to meetings now but I am on Zoom, I get it on Zoom and I join AA meetings that [have] people from the U.K., Puerto Rico, all over the world and we’re watching this, like I am doing with you, because technology is so amazing,” Leonard told Reuters from his home in Pacific Palisades, California.
“I can relate to that, and I love this. You can go anywhere. It takes you to where everyone else is. It puts us together.”
Leonard said he was nervous about the prospect of getting on camera for online meetings but adjusted.
“It was scary because, like you asked me, I was afraid, not afraid, well, yes I was afraid,” he said. “I was afraid to go on camera and say, ‘Hi guys, I am Sugar Ray’ — I say Ray — ‘and I’m an alcoholic. That was tough but I am getting better now talking about these things that are so stigmatized.
“It’s new people, but it’s the demons messing with me. They’re saying, ‘Don’t reveal yourself, Don’t reveal yourself’. And this guy is saying ‘Ray, it’s OK, it’s OK, you’re one and the same, you guys are alcoholics’.”
Leonard, an Olympic champion and boxing Hall of Famer, said one revelation online has been how young people know him.
Said Leonard: “[People say] ‘you’re that guy, right?’ And I say, ‘Yeah, but what guy?’ And he says, ‘The guy on Dancing with the Stars.'”
