Courtney Love - Personal Life

Personal Life

Love has been a practicing Buddhist since 1989, and has studied and practiced both Tibetan and Nichiren Buddhism. She is a member of Sōka Gakkai, an international lay Buddhist organization. She has consequently often credited her faith as having helped her overcome addictions and personal problems. In 1999, Love stated that she was a Democrat. She has advocated for stricter gun control laws and gay rights, and voted against California's Proposition 8 during the 2008 elections. Love is also self-identified feminist, and has been noted throughout her career for her subversive feminism and "self-conscious parody of female sex roles".

Love has struggled with substance abuse problems for a great deal of her life. She experimented with various opiates in her early adult years, and tried cocaine at age 19. In 1992, Vanity Fair published an article by journalist Lynn Hirschberg which alluded that Love was addicted to heroin during her pregnancy. Love claimed she was misquoted, and asserted that she immediately quit using the drug during her first trimester after she discovered she was pregnant. Nonetheless, the publication of the article led to a lengthy battle with the Los Angeles County Court in which custody of newborn Frances was taken away from Love and Cobain and placed with Love's sister, Jamie, for several months.

After Cobain committed suicide in 1994, Love began using heroin again regularly, but quit using the drug in 1996 at the insistence of director Miloš Forman when she landed a starring role in The People vs. Larry Flynt. Love was ordered urine tests under the supervision of Columbia Pictures while filming the movie, and passed all of them.

Between 2004 and 2006, after making several public appearances clearly intoxicated (namely on the Late Show with David Letterman and the Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson) and suffering drug-related arrests and probation violations, Love was sentenced to six months in lock down rehab due to struggles with various prescription drugs and cocaine. She made a public statement after her release, saying: "I would just like to thank the court for allowing me these 90 days... helped me deal with a very gnarly drug problem, which is behind me... I've been really inspired and have remained inspired." Love claimed to have been sober as of 2007, and in May 2011, insisted her sobriety, saying: "That's not the way I live anymore. I try to work a good program. I don't do smack. I don't do crack anymore."

Love has lived in several cities throughout her life; in the 1980s, she mainly resided in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, and lived in Seattle between 1993 and 1995 during her marriage to Cobain. She was mainly based in Los Angeles until the mid-2000s, and has largely resided in New York City since 2010. Love has also stated in interviews that she never learned how to drive a car: "I lived in L.A. for twenty years not knowing how to drive... that will get ya."