Robert Munsch reveals battle with addiction

Canadian bestselling children’s author Robert Munsch admitted to a history of cocaine abuse to dull the effects of his bipolar disorder in a Global television interview aired on Saturday.

Mr. Munsch made the potentially career-damaging public revelation in an exclusive interview with the Global News program 16:9 The Bigger Picture, explaining that he is a former drug addict and alcoholic, but is now in recovery thanks to Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous. He says he has been clean for about four months.

"When I was drinking, I would sometimes drink too much and do stupid things. And one of the stupid things I did was use cocaine," says the Guelph-based writer, who survived a stroke in 2008 and now sometimes searches for words and has an occasional stutter.

Mr. Munsch, 64, discovered cocaine relatively late in life– about five years ago, he says.

He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around 1990. In the past he has spoken publicly about coping with mental illness.

Dubbed "Canada’s King of Kidlit" by Quill and Quire magazine, Mr. Munsch was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999 and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame last fall.

In contrast to the lifelong struggles with pain and despair he discusses in the 16:9 interview, most of Mr. Munsch’s nearly 50 books–bedtime story fodder including The Paper Bag Princess, Angela’s Airplane and David’s Father — are characterized by humour, madcap situations and a sense of irony absent from much children’s lit.

The author’s persona at public readings matches the material: He has unleashed his signature manic energy in front of thousands upon thousands of giggling children across Canada over the past three decades.

"My public person was so crazy and my private person was so depressed and unhappy," Mr. Munsch says in the television interview.

The author was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa., and says he spent his childhood mostly unhappy. He suffered a brutal attack by a mugger in Boston in the 1970s and tells Global about walking through the city in a manic state, carrying a knife in his pocket and searching for his attacker. He later trained to be a priest.

In 1979 and again in 1980, Mr. Munsch’s wife, Ann, gave birth to stillborn babies.

He recalls turning to alcohol to numb the existential pain with which he lived. "I found that drinking would break my depression in a minute. I could take a drink and wait and, ‘Ahh, I feel OK.’"

Mr. Munsch’s friends and associates were often unaware of his drinking.

"I was a French-style drunk, who is quietly immersed in alcohol all the time," he explained. "I didn’t have binges. I was just having a morning drink." He told Global he never drank when he was writing or performing, or looking after his children.

The author developed his storytelling ability during the 1970s while he was working at daycare centres in Massachusetts and later Ontario. At the urging of boss, he finally got his first book published in 1979.

Mud Puddle tells the story of a school dogged by a heap of mud that hides in trees waiting to drop on unsuspecting children. The book sold modestly at first, but grew in popularity as Mr. Munsch supported his lengthening list of titles in the 1980s with thousands of school and library readings.

They continue to sell well: Many of Mr. Munsch’s fans — Munschkins, as they are sometimes called — now have children of their own. A typical Canadian bookstore might have an entire shelf dedicated to his books.

In 1986, Mr. Munsch released the uncharacteristically poignant Love You Forever, which has sold millions of copies (reports vary as to how many; Mr. Munsch’s own site claims the number is more than 15 million). That same year, Mr. Munsch says, a glass of wine turned into a boozing relapse.

In the interview with 16:9, daughter Julie Munsch, 34, describes her surprise at her father’s admission of cocaine use.

"It is illegal. It was a shock to find out that at the age of 62 or whatever — you know, you have this image of what somebody who does cocaine is — it certainly wasn’t my father," she says.

"And an idea of how is he getting it, what is he doing, that type of thing — that was one of the bigger worries, about his personal safety and things like that."

Daughter Tyya Munsch, 24, is likewise forgiving.

"He may be an entertainer, but he’s still a human being, and everyone deals with these problems," she says.

"But he’s a better man for it, he’s made himself a better man for it."

Mr. Munsch is scheduled to spend a few weeks doing a series of public readings in Western Canada and Ontario starting on May 25.