Eddie Murphy’s sobriety strengthens faith

Eddie Murphy thanks God that he has never taken drugs.

The 55-year-old actor thinks there are a number of times he could have "wound up crashing and burning", such as when he was offered cocaine by his late ‘Saturday Night Live’ castmates John Belushi – who died from a cocaine and heroin overdose in 1982 – and Robin Williams, who committed suicide two years ago.

And Eddie admits his narrow escapes only serve to strengthen his faith.

He said: "I don’t drink — I don’t have like this moral thing about it, I just don’t do it — and I didn’t get high.

"[One night out] Belushi and Robin Williams offered me some blow (cocaine) and I didn’t take it, and Belushi called me a ‘tightass.’ Then, years later, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a trip.’

"[If I’d accepted it] The Eddie Murphy story would have been totally different.

"There are a bunch of things like that that I look back on and be like, ‘Wow.’ And that just reaffirms my faith. I know that God is real. There’s been a bunch of times when I could have wound up crashing and burning."

The ‘Mr. Church’ star – who has eight children from past relationships and three-month-old daughter Izzy with girlfriend Paige Butcher – claims he hasn’t read a newspaper for 20 years as he is no longer interested in negative stories about himself or the industry.

Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Awards Chatter’ podcast, he said: "I used to be the hippest of them all. I used to know everything about everything. I used to read about everything that was going on and I knew everybody’s name and anybody in pop culture. Anything that was written about me I would read.

"And for the last maybe 20 years — I haven’t read a newspaper in 20 years, or read a corporate magazine, I don’t read corporate magazines or stuff, I don’t read stuff about me. I really don’t read stuff about me.

"Like, if there’s an article about me, someone has to read through it before they even give it to me. I don’t want to see anything that has anything negative. I don’t want to read any of that s**t. So I don’t know what y’all think."

And Eddie has no interest in interacting with his fans on social media as he doesn’t even own a computer.

He added: "I don’t have a computer, I don’t have email, I don’t have any of that s**t.

"I don’t need to be on social media interacting with the fans, tweeting that I just ate strawberries. Nothing has made me go, ‘Oh, yeah, get me on, too, I want to be on there with y’all! I just had strawberries too!’ ‘I’m going to the store now!’ ‘Look at this picture of this baby!’

"I don’t feel any pressure to live up to any whatever — expectation — anyone may have."