{"id":6618,"date":"2026-06-24T08:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/singer-jewel-reveals-shoplifting-addiction-while-homeless-nearly-destroyed-her\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T08:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:10:07","slug":"singer-jewel-reveals-shoplifting-addiction-while-homeless-nearly-destroyed-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/singer-jewel-reveals-shoplifting-addiction-while-homeless-nearly-destroyed-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Singer Jewel reveals shoplifting addiction while homeless nearly destroyed her"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F06%2F132041667.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft wp-block-nypost-editor-partner-article-links\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Jewel\u00a0was once homeless and suffering from debilitating mental health issues before transforming her life and becoming a successful singer and songwriter.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cFoolish Games\u201d singer shared some of the traumas from her upbringing, including when her mother left their family when she was 8 years old, while chatting on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fnbo-x0SFHY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cNo Magic Pill\u201d\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Her father became \u201cphysically abusive\u201d once they moved back to his hometown, which is where Jewel\u2019s \u201cwhole world really turned upside down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made a promise really young\u00a0not to do drugs or drink,\u201d she said. \u201cAgain, I think just cuz I had such an extreme front row seat to seeing what it did. It didn\u2019t look glamorous, you know, it didn\u2019t look sexy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd some deep, deep part of me knew to be deadly terrified of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By 15, Jewel was living on her own, and a few years later moved to\u00a0San Diego\u00a0to take care of her ailing mother. Paychecks fell through and bills mounted by the time she decided to live in her car while <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2023\/03\/22\/jewel-says-her-mother-embezzled-over-100m-from-her\/\">her mom went back to Alaska<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Singer Jewel opened up about her shoplifting addiction while homeless on the \u201cNo Magic Pill\u201d podcast. <span class=\"credit\">No Magic Pill with Blake Mycoskie \/ YouTube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At first, Jewel tried to be optimistic about the situation, but her <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2020\/07\/14\/jewel-opens-up-about-homelessness-mental-health-struggle\/\">mental health began to suffer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy\u00a0panic attacks\u00a0were getting worse. My agoraphobia was getting worse,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have food. I didn\u2019t have water. I didn\u2019t have \u2026 anything. I didn\u2019t have gas for the car.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jewel recalled her lowest point when she began shoplifting.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The singer reflected on her difficult childhood, including an abusive dad and her mom leaving when she was 8. <span class=\"credit\">WireImage<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI started stealing food and stealing, like, herbs and things like that to try and \u2026 I had bad kidneys,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then, it just kind of evolved into stealing things that weren\u2019t food and things that I didn\u2019t need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Host Blake Mycoskie noted a point in the singer\u2019s memoir, \u201cNever Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story,\u201d where she described looking in the mirror at a dressed-down version of herself and realizing that stealing was about the fear that she would never be enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think, you know, stealing for me really became a real addiction,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was compulsive. I couldn\u2019t control it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Jewel said her struggles led to a shoplifting addiction, recalling the moment she realized she needed to change. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for The Wellness Experience by Kroger<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While standing in a changing room and attempting to tuck a stolen dress into her pants, Jewel was hit with a difficult epiphany.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw my reflection in the mirror and \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/17\/us-news\/nypds-new-approach-to-rampant-shoplifting-paying-dividends-cops\/\">I was a statistic<\/a>,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a homeless kid shoplifting, and I\u2019m going to end up in jail or dead if this keeps going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The musician leaned on a quote she remembered: \u201cHappiness doesn\u2019t depend on who you are or what you have. It depends on what you think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From there, Jewel felt empowered to change her mind and change her ways to fully heal from her past. One unconventional step she took: writing everything down that she did with her hands over a two-week period.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The \u201cFoolish Games\u201d star said she turned her life around by changing her mindset and healing from her past. <span class=\"credit\">WWD via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t had a panic attack in two weeks,\u201d she realized. \u201cWhat I stumbled on was being radically present. Journaling about my hands all day \u2026 I literally would watch my hands open a door. I\u2019d watch my hands not shake a hand, or whatever it was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d watch my hand steal. I was so radically present that \u2026 I forgot to worry about a future that hadn\u2019t happened yet. It was so liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cI realized that\u00a0fear is a thief, and it robs you of the only opportunity you have to change your life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/06\/24\/celebrity-news\/singer-jewel-reveals-shoplifting-addiction-while-homeless-nearly-destroyed-her\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jewel\u00a0was once homeless and suffering from debilitating mental health issues before transforming her life and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/132041667.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}