A former Conde Nast editor has revealed he had an opioid addiction that saw him taking 60 vicodin pills a day, including ones that had fallen under a urinal at a black tie event.
Dan Peres, now 48, was battling his addition during his 15-year reign as editor-in-chief of the company’s monthly men’s magazine Details in New York.
Peres, who ran the publication until it shut down in 2015, spent seven years living a dual life as a celebrated national magazine editor and opioid addict.
He has divulged the details of his addiction and his struggles to hide it in his new book As Needed for Pain: A Memoir of Addiction.
Peres, who was first exposed to opioids in 1995 when he ruptured a spinal disk, recalls several instances in his memoir that shows the absolute depths of his addiction as he lived out his seemingly glamorous magazine lifestyle.
Dan Peres, now 48, was battling his addition during his 15-year reign as editor-in-chief of Conde Nast’s monthly men’s magazine Details in New York. He is pictured above with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman at a Details’ event prior to him getting clean
He recalls one time being at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards in 2001 when designer Tom Ford caught him hunched over the sink in the men’s bathroom as he tried to shovel down pills.
Peres said he told Ford – who was being honored as the womenswear designer of the year – that it was just Tylenol but the designer responded: ‘Yeah, right.’
In 2003, he recalled dropping several pills on the floor under the urinal at the Waldorf Astoria during a black tie event.
‘Does the five-second rule count for p***-soaked drugs?… I’d like to say I hesitated,’ he write.
By 2003, Peres was shoveling down as many as 60 pills each day. He continued abusing the pills until he eventually got clean in 2007.
In those days as a high-flying magazine editor, Peres lived in a subsidized room at the Morgans Hotel on Madison Avenue and would enjoy expense accounts and Town Car paid for by the company.
He recalls once trashing his hotel room because he couldn’t find his pills and accused the housekeeper of stealing his stash.
Peres admits that he frequently didn’t make it into the office despite being in charge of dozens of employees. He would take naps in his office and once fell asleep interviewing a job applicant.
He recalls one time being at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards in 2001 when designer Tom Ford caught him hunched over the sink in the men’s bathroom as he tried to shovel down pills. They are pictured together in 2013
Peres, who ran the publication until it shut down in 2015, spent seven years living a dual life as a celebrated national magazine editor and opioid addict. He is pictured with Bradley Cooper in 2009 – a year after he got clean
He has divulged the details of his addiction and his struggles to hide it in his new book As Needed for Pain: A Memoir of Addiction. Peres is pictured on Monday promoting his new memoir
He recalls meeting with boxer Mike Tyson to discuss an upcoming story after taking 15 pills. He was soaked in sweat and swaying back and forth before he ran outside and spewed on the street.
Peres recalls also vomiting into a trash can in his office during one high and trying to mask the smell with scented candles.
On one occasion, he made his assistant plan a work trip to San Diego just so he could drive across the border to Mexico and buy $6,000 worth of drugs.
After going to Mexico, he appeared on Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect in Los Angeles before flying back to New York with his drug stash.
He would make regular trips to Los Angeles to meet with publicists and see his actress girlfriend Sarah Wynter who he would later go on to marry.
Peres said he would often get high on the flights because ‘plane highs were usually the best, especially in first class’.
Given his frequent trips to LA, his Town Car driver there eventually became his drug dealer.
He recalls once asking the driver to take him to Skid Row after he considered trying heroin but he was chased by a person he had asked for the drug.
Peres married his actress wife Sarah Wynter in 2014. He write in his memoir that he went hunting for drugs on their 2015 honeymoon in Cabo, Mexico
Donatella Versace is pictured above shaking hands with Peres and his wife Sarah Wynter in 2006 in New York
‘It’s not easy to run for your life in a pair of Tod’s driving moccasins,’ he wrote.
He moved on to the stronger opioid Roxicodone in about 2004.
Peres married his wife Sarah in 2005 and he even went hunting for drugs during their honeymoond in Cabo, Mexico.
He got a driver to drive him to four different pharmacies before he was able to get something to satisfy his addiction.
Peres finally decided to get clean in 2007 after a friend flushed his drugs down the toilet and took him to his mother’s house in Maryland.
During his detox, he had to call Ben Affleck and apologize after the actor had complained he had been misquoted in a cover story.
The article had been cleared by Peres to publish.
‘There I was sitting in the den of my mother’s house, a shivering, quivering mess with a blanket wrapped around me, talking to Ben Affleck,’ Peres writes.
Despite a brief relapse, Peres was able to curb his addiction for good in 2008 – just months before his first son was born.
He and Wynter went on to have three children together before they split in 2015.
As Needed for Pain: A Memoir of Addiction was published by Harper Collins and was made available on Tuesday.