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Kirstie Alley: Scientology freed me from my cocaine addition

Prominent Scientologist Kirstie Alley has come forward about her gritty past and how discovering the religion played a role in her overcoming a severe addiction to cocaine.

In a frank new interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” the actress admits that her cocaine use nearly took her life.

“I thought I was going to overdose almost every time,” Alley confessed.

The “Cheers” star said she would abuse cocaine even when her health was at stake. “I would snort the coke, then I would sit there, I’d take my pulse [thinking], ‘I’m dying, I’m dying, I’m dying.’ Who would keep doing it?”

Alley said she was able to free herself from her addiction when her friend prompted her to read “Dianetics”— one of the many Scientology “Bibles” written by founder L. Ron Hubbard.

“Somehow I got through [the book], and I thought either [Scientology] is the world’s biggest scam, or I thought this is how I am going to get rid of this hideous compulsion,” she explained.

The “Dancing with the Stars” contestant, who is currently promoting her new book, “The Art of Men,” recently dropped two other bombshells. She claims to have had secret relationships with John Travolta and Patrick Swayze.

She told ABC News’ Barbara Walters she had a secret affair with Swayze when they worked on their movie “North and South.”

She said that Swayze wanted Alley to get a divorce from her then-husband Parker Stevenson and marry him, but she didn’t want to destroy Swayze’s relationship with his wife.

“I probably was more willing to break up my marriage, and I wasn’t willing to break up his marriage,” Alley said about Swayze’s wife Lisa Niemi. Alley is unsure if Niemi, who asked her to speak at Swayze’s funeral in 2009, knows about their romance. She insists that she and Swayze’s wife are good friends.

After her romance with Swayze, Alley signed on to “Look Who’s Talking” with John Travolta. According to Alley, their love blossomed.

Alley described the fellow Scientologist as “the greatest love of my life.” She fought off the impulse to “run off and marry” him.

She didn’t “because I feel like when you marry someone, you’re supposed to work hard at it and you’re supposed to make it work.”

Alley and Travolta went on to make two sequels of “Look Who’s Talking” and remain friends. In the interview, Alley dashed persistent rumors that Travolta is gay, telling Walters “I know John. With all my heart and soul, he’s not gay. I think it’s some weird way, in Hollywood, if someone gets big enough and famous enough, and they’re not out doing drugs and they’re not womanizing, what do you say about them?”

Alley says her affairs never went farther than kissing. She stayed married to Stevenson for 14 years. They divorced in 1997.