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Guy Fieri, by all accounts, is one of the most likable people in show business.
From his humble start as the 2006 winner of The Next Food Network Star (2nd season) he went on to become one of the most recognizable faces in the culinary industry. A path that surely, at one dark point in his life, Guy Fieri couldn’t have imagined going down.
As a guest this week on the Now What? With Brooke Shields podcast, Guy Fieri opened up about how his life was changed by a fatal drunk driving accident when he was a teenager.
Speaking with Shields, Guy Fieri revealed “I was in a fatality car accident when I was 19 when I was in college. I wasn’t driving, I was in the backseat. And unfortunately, I was with a bunch of guys and … we were drinking.”
He went on to say “This guy saw a cop and he was drinking. We were camping half a mile away. And he took off and we got chased and the car flipped and the guy next to me was killed. It was horrific. Everybody was messed up. And I did go Flight for Life in the helicopter and the whole thing.”
In the story, Guy Fieri revealed that when he ‘woke up,’ or regained consciousness, he was handcuffed to a medical bed/stretcher. The others in the car falsely claimed that Guy was the one (drinking) behind the wheel of the car.
He was soon afterward arrested at his college dorm. Guy graduated from UNLV in 1990.
Fieri says the police knew he wasn’t driving, telling Brooke “It was going bad after worse because everybody was saying that I was, you know … Anyhow, the cops knew I wasn’t (responsible).”
It was shortly thereafter that Guy’s dad spoke some sense into him that changed his life forever. He told his son “Cut the s—-. You’re not invincible. This is for real now. You’re not in your hometown anymore. You’re in Las Vegas… You got to focus.”
Guy Fieri took his dad’s advice to heart. He went on to say “I was like ‘Okay — my family didn’t have any money. I’m not the smartest kid.’ Didn’t get the best grades. But if I’m going to win, I’m going to win based upon how hard I play and how disciplined I am and how driven and how controlled I am. And if I do that then I have a better chance at getting through this.”
From there, Guy went on to bring that advice into his life as a parent. He says “It’s things I teach my kids all the time. Don’t trust anybody to drive you. Don’t trust what anybody puts in a drink and gives it to you. Don’t trust if anybody tells you that this is safe or this is smart. You have to be the master of your domain. You have to be in control of your environment.”
According to the NY Post, they reached out to Guy Fieri for a comment about the story and false accusations of fatal drunk driving. But the Post has not updated their article yet with a comment.
Brooke Shields’ podcast can be streamed wherever you get your podcasts.
Just think, if those false accusations held up the world might never have seen his iconic flame shirt.