Former reality TV star Alexis Haines opens up about the 2008-2009 robberies and her journey to healing in Netflix's 'The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist.'
. Cozied up in the streamer’s Los Angeles office after a long day of press, Haines has traded in the majority of her glam for a dark brown sweatsuit, the only remainder of the tireless day — and her Hollywood past — being her pageant hair, smoky eyes and glossy nails.Over the years, Haines has attempted to distance herself from the Bling Ring. So what made her decide to participate in a buzzy docuseries about it? Director Miles Blayden-Ryall’s nuanced approach to storytelling, Haines says.
The 31-year-old’s part in the Bling Ring stemmed from her addiction, which was a way for her to mask her trauma from abuse. “My story is one that involves incest, early childhood sexual abuse, rape, and it started when I was 4 and went on until I was about 8. I was also abused by my dad’s girlfriends and by babysitters, and I was raped when I was 17 by a really powerful man in Hollywood,” she recalls. Haines needed money to fuel her drug use, to help her cope.
And Haines has done the work to get there: She’s been clean and sober now for 11 years. “The Bling Ring was apart of why I ended up getting sober,” she admits. It’s why she doesn’t really mind her name being associated with it anymore. But she has one caveat: She wants the work she does in the addiction and mental health spaces to be recognized — not for herself, but so that people will have the critical conversations that can help others heal.
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