KING OF REHAB'S NEXT MISSION

He overcame addiction and opened the country's most prestigious treatment center. Now, Richard Taite is taking on America's fentanyl crisis

- JANEÉ BOLDEN

RICHARD TAITE HAS LIVED ENOUGH LIVES for 10 men. Once a homeless addict who lost 25 years to drugs, he's now a multimillionaire entrepreneur determined to rebuild the recovery world from the ground up.

Known as “The King of Rehab,” Taite, 59, is the founder of Cliffside Malibu, the luxury treatment center that became synonymous with celebrity recovery. After selling it for a record-breaking nine-figure sum in 2018, Taite could have disappeared quietly into a comfortable Malibu retirement. Instead, he's back with two new treatment centers, a podcast and a book, all fueled by purpose, faith and his commitment to what he considers is unfinished business: America's fentanyl crisis.

"I lost 25 years of my life to drug addiction and have treated people for 22," Taite told Newsweek. "That's 47 years. I am the biggest miracle in history and this is the best life I've ever known."

Taite grew up in Encino, California, in a home that seemed idyllic from the outside—but that was not the case. “You'd think it was a great childhood because we had enough,” he said. “But the beatings were really bad. Every day, all of us. When we weren't being beaten, we were being told, ‘What are you, stupid?’ or, ‘I wish you weren't born.”

By 17, his father had left, his family got evicted and his beloved grandfather had died—all within 90 days. “That was it. It broke me,” he said. “I spent the next 25 years killing myself with drugs and alcohol.”

Crack cocaine became his drug of choice. “I'd smoke an ounce of cocaine every single day, no matter what,” he said. “It took me three years just to get 30 days sober. I probably had more sobriety dates than there are dates in the calendar.”