- - Harry Hamlin Tells Wife Lisa Rinna That He Was ‘Forced to Smoke PCP’ in Jail: ‘I Was Completely Messed Up After That’

Escher WalcottDecember 7, 2025 at 2:06 AM

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Harry Hamlin and wife Lisa Rinna in September 2024 -

Harry Hamlin confessed that he was “forced to smoke PCP” during a brief stint in jail in 1970

The actor made the confession to wife Lisa Rinna on the Dec. 5 episode of their Let’s Not Talk About the Husband podcast

“I was so stoned because the [inmate] forced me to take three or four hits of it,” the 74-year-old explained on the podcast

Harry Hamilin is reflecting on his traumatic time in jail in 1970.

The actor, 74, confessed that he was “forced” to take the hallucinogenic drug phencyclidine (PCP) while briefly in jail as a young man, while speaking on the Dec. 5 episode of his and his wife Lisa Rinna’s Let’s Not Talk About the Husband podcast.

“In jail, I was forced to smoke PCP,” Hamlin told Rinna, 62, on the episode. “I was so stoned because [an inmate] forced me to take three or four hits of it and I was completely messed up after I had that.”

The Mayfair Witches star explained that he was jailed in 1970 after he was caught with 25 pills given to him by members of his fraternity.

“I was at Berkeley and and my upperclassmen in the fraternity house … came to me before I was going down to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving … and said, ‘Take these pills down and give them to another house at USC, they need these for their exams,’ ” Hamlin said. “So I take them down and they didn't want the pills … so I had to take them back.”

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Harry Hamlin in 2024

The actor admitted that he traveled back to school on the plane with the pills repacked in his “guitar case,” to which Rinna responded, “Do you think that was very smart?”

“Obviously not because I ended up in jail,” Hamlin replied.

Hamlin said he had a connection with the warden of the jail, as his brother was “an actor in the acting school at Berkeley,” where he was also a member of the drama department.

“I sit down with the warden and my lawyer and we all have a cheeseburger together,” he recalled. “And the warden says, ‘Listen, when you get there, don’t worry about anything. I’ll make sure that you’re okay.’ ”

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Harry Hamlin and his wife Lisa Rinna

The actor said that he ended up in a holding cell with a young man who was “crying his eyes out.” He felt “pity” for the young man and so he asked the prison guards if they could allow him to share a cell with him and the pair were both put in a “felony cell” together.

The young man was eventually released on bail, leaving Hamlin in a jail with the “felons,” he recalled.

The next day, Hamlin claimed he went to breakfast and was offered a joint by an inmate, to which he refused multiple times. Hamlin added that the inmate was persistent, however, and Hamlin eventually caved in a tried it, not realizing it was PCP.

“That’s how I was forced to have the PCP. Somebody had brought in a little sack of rolling tobacco that was soaked in PCP … so they were smoking it and there was no odor. But they were high as kites,” he recalled.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”