Eden Sassoon Says Late Sister’s Drug Addiction Started With ’80s Partying With ‘Tuff Turf’ Co-Star Kim Richards


Eden Sassoon says her late sister’s drug addiction started when she worked on the 1985 teen movie Tuff Turf with Kim Richards and Robert Downey Jr. The freshman Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, who lives a sober lifestyle and runs her own Pilates studio, recently opened up about her sister Catya Sassoon’s 2002 drug overdose while talking to RHOBH veterans Lisa Rinna and Erika Girardi.

Eden Sassoon, the daughter of famed celebrity hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, told her new RHOBH co-stars that she was “very numb” and “completely shut off” after her 34-year-old sister died of a drug overdose in 2003. Eden also revealed that her sister met Kim Richards and co-stars James Spader and Robert Downey Jr. at age 15 on the set of 1985 movie Tuff Turf, and that’s when she started doing drugs.

Catya Sassoon played Feather, a gang member, in the teen-themed film, while Richards played a troubled Valley teen, Frankie, who was caught up with the wrong crowd. After years as a Disney darling, Tuff Turf came near the end of Kim Richards’ career as a child star, and it was Sassoon’s first role in a brief acting career.

“This was way, way back in the day when my dad bought Frank Stallone’s house in Bel-Air,” Eden said, according to People. “Kim would come over with Robert Downey — and Robert would play the piano like crazy. I was like ‘Who are all these, like, insane [people]?'”

“Sure enough they all sort of had their stuff,” Eden added. “I think on this set was the beginning of everybody’s drug and alcohol abuse, if you really look at it.”

Catya Sassoon’s obituary originally stated that she died in her sleep after attending a party at a friend’s house.

“She complained of feeling woozy, and they left the party and went home,” Sassoon’s manager Hilly said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

An autopsy later revealed that the Sassoon heiress died of a drug-induced heart attack brought on by an overdose of hydromorphone and cocaine. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Eden Sassoon’s brother, David, said their late sister lived a fast life.

“She was a wild child, she was into all sorts of drugs. She got married at 15,” Sassoon said. “We were close and we partied together. We were at a New Year’s party at a mutual friend’s when she overdosed. She wasn’t feeling good and took pills to counteract the pills she’d already taken. She went to sleep and didn’t wake up. I had to call the family.”

[Image by Ian Tyas/Keystone Features/Getty Images]

In 1990, Catya Sassoon and her mother, Beverly Sassoon, talked about their drug and alcohol dependencies while doing promotional interviews for Beverly’s novel, Fantasies. At the time, Beverly Sassoon said she was three years sober and that her daughter was about to celebrate a year sober from “a drug habit that was so tough there were times I felt I was going to lose her.”

Richards, whose long battle with drugs and alcohol has been well documented both on and off camera, has not publicly responded to Eden Sassoon’s comments about her connection to her late sister’s drug habit. But Kim Richards and Eden Sassoon are set to come face to face on next week’s episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, so it would be surprising if the sad subject doesn’t come up.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Take a look at the video below to see RHOBH star Kyle Richards talking about how Eden Sassoon “zoned in on” her and her sister, Kim.

[Featured Image by Araya Diaz/Getty Images]

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