Chelsea Handler had a pill mix-up while traveling with her late dog, Chunk — which resulted in him running amok in an airplane cabin.
Handler shared the story with Kelly Ripa on the talk show host’s podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera, after Ripa quipped that she wanted Adderall to manage her early mornings because “the coffee wasn’t doing it.”
Adderall, as Verywell Health explains, is a stimulant drug meant to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy.
Handler said she was flying home from a vacation in Spain with Chunk, and “I thought I gave him a melatonin, and I gave him an Adderall accidentally because I had mixed all my pills together because I’ve been on vacation for quite a long time.”
“I had taken a Xanax,” Handler said of the anxiety drug, which Verywell Mind says has a “sedative effect,” and she gave Chunk the sleep aid melatonin — or so she thought.
Handler continued, “Then I woke up, and the flight attendant was, like, shaking me by the shoulders, and she’s like, ‘Miss Handler, [your] dog is running around the first-class cabin foaming at the mouth. We need you to get up and get him.’ “
“And I was like, ‘What? I have a dog? Like, what are you talking about?’ And I went over, and there he is licking the side of the bathroom door,” she shared.
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The star continued, “I was like, ‘Oh my God. My dignified, regal dog was acting completely out of whack.’ And I was like, ‘How could he react a melatonin like this?’ “
“When I got home and I told my sister the story, she’s like, ‘That wasn’t a melatonin. You better look through your pill case,’ “ she recalled.
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Handler said that her sister told her, “ ‘You’re packing some serious heat in there, and you need to find out what you gave him.’ “
The comic recently shared a video detailing all 17 supplements that she takes on tour, which includes a mix of vitamins and prescription medications.
After looking through her pills, Handler said, “I found out I had given him an Adderall.”
Chunk was 9 when Handler adopted the German shepherd-Chow mix from a kill shelter in 2009; the beloved pet and social media star died in 2018.
Looking back on the plane incident with Ripa, Handler said, “And people ask me why I don’t have children. It’s like, ‘Hello?’ ”