Jamie Lee Curtis details secret opioid addiction she hid for a decade

Jamie Lee Curtis is coming clean about the secret opioid addiction she battled for a full decade.

“I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving," Curtis, 59, told People. "No one knew. No one."

The "Halloween" star was first prescribed opiates after a surgical procedure in 1989, and the subsequent years would find Curtis hunting down painkillers through any possible means -- even stealing pills from those closest to her.

During this time, Curtis' career continued to flourish, even more effectively hiding her private pain. Some of her biggest films, including "Blue Steel," "My Girl" and "True Lies," were all released as she indulged in her addiction behind-the-scenes.

And outside of her own battle, Curtis knew the devastation of addiction firsthand through her own family: Her father, actor Tony Curtis, abused alcohol, cocaine and heroin, and in 1994, her' half-brother, Nicholas, died from a heroin overdose.

“I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family,” Curtis said.

She has now been sober for nearly two decades and continues to attend meetings, noting, "In recovery meetings, anyone who brings up opiates, the entire room will turn and look at me, because I’ll be like, ‘Oh here, talk to me. I’m the opiate girl.'"

Her sobriety, she said, is her "single greatest accomplishment ... bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children and bigger than any work, success, failure. Anything.”