Juice WRLD’s mother says he died because the people closest to him were enabling his drug use.
"I couldn't protect him. I didn't know enough about the industry and I just felt helpless," Carmella Wallace said on an episode of The Tamron Hall Show that aired Tuersday.
“I just felt like his best interest wasn’t being looked out for. People had their own agendas and they liked the lifestyle. And they were young too, so I have to give them that. They’re young so they don’t see things the way we would see 'em but he just didn’t have the people in place to tell him to stop or [tell him] 'no.'
"He just didn't have that support system in place."
Juice WRLD, whose real name was Jarad Higgins, died in December 2019 just days after his 21st birthday. A coroner determined the rapper died “as a result of oxycodone and codeine toxicity,” and “the manner of death is accident.”
Wallace said her son knew for awhile that she was concerned about his health.
“I told him what my fears were of him overdosing," she recalled. "I encouraged him to speak with the psychologist he used to speak with ... but he was 19 and he knew everything. He figured he had it."
Wallace believes Juice WRLD was ready to seek treatment for his drug addiction. When she saw him months before his death, she said he seemed like the son she used to know. “I could tell there was a difference in him, that he wasn’t doing the lean,” she said, referring to a drink made with cough syrup. I think he was still doing pills, but he told me he was ready to get help.
"It was just a special moment. We just had that moment where I just knew he was going to overcome it.”