Montel Williams recalls 'taking 12 to 13 pills a day' during the height of his fame

Montel Williams has recalled "taking 12 to 13 pills a day" at the height of his fame.

The former talk show host, 68, admitted he stockpiled opioids to help him deal with his multiple sclerosis symptoms - and that his addiction was enabled because he was famous.

"As celebrities, we can get whatever we want," he told Maria Menounos on the Heal Squad podcast.

He revealed that when he was travelling across the country with The Montel Williams Show between 1991 and 2008, he got access to doctors through hotel concierges.

"Back then we didn't have oxycodone, we had things like Talwin, we had things like morphine," he said. "I found I could call the hotel doctor and get a 10-day prescription of any drug I wanted and they would just happily give it to me."

He continued, "So I started stocking up. There was one point in time when I was taking about 12 to 13 pills a day."

Montel, who was diagnosed with MS in 1999, admitted that eventually his main doctor caught on to what he was doing, calling him and saying "'Dude, you're done. I'm not writing you any more of these.'"

His doctor then threatened to get the federal Drug Enforcement Agency involved, telling Montel, "'I'm literally gonna send a message off to the DEA and tell them that you are doctor hunting. I'm gonna put you on the national register, you shouldn't get prescribed these drugs.'"

His doctor advised him to look into medical marijuana for his MS-induced pain.

"And I did just that," said Montel. He is now an advocate for medical marijuana for pain relief.