Michael Phelps | 04/10/2009 9:00 am

Michael Phelps's Mom, Debbie Phelps, Talks About Bong Photos, Being a Single Mom (Video)

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Most parents are proud of their kids. But Debbie Phelps has more than a few reasons to beam over her Olympic-gold-medalist son, Michael Phelps. Even after photos surfaced earlier this year of her son appearing to smoke from a bong more than four years after he was arrested for a DUI, Mother Phelps has only the best things to say about her son.

Mrs. Phelps told CNN’s Larry King last night that she "doesn’t get caught up in gossip columns" covering her son’s alleged behavior. "He has great values, lots of integrity. That’s what I think about that."

On the bong photo, she said: "It’s a picture, that’s true. But, you know, a picture can say many things. It has many words. It has many meanings. It has many visualizations that you want to think. It depends on the person who is looking at that picture." It will take a lot more than that to bring her family down, she told Access Hollywood. "No one’s life is perfect," she said. "If someone’s life is perfect, I want to know."

In her new book, A Mother for All Seasons, the mother of three talks about being a single parent, and says she was unhappy with Michael’s "disappointing, uncharacteristic behavior." "Nothing like this had ever happened with him," she writes. "It was unreal — like something out of a horror movie — with TV clips of jail cell doors slamming ominously shut, dooming the life and career of one golden boy turned loser."

So, does she think her 23-year-old son is still a role model? Absolutely, she told CNN:

When I hear that role model in a sentence with my son, what I think about with Michael is what he does with and for children. It might be things people don’t even know of — his association with the Boys and Girls Club. For years, he has done that (and) his association with Make a Wish. He touches kids’ lives. So if an individual, wherever they may be, may select my son as a role model, I say that my son has strong values. I say he’s a human being. And I say that from obstacles that get in people’s ways — we all have them, Mr. King, and you know that — what do you learn from them and how do you rise above the occasion?

Watch Mrs. Phelps’ interview with Larry King below:

15 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I am so proud of Mrs. Phelps for supporting her son and addressing societal hiprocrisy!… Society loves to make heroes but enjoys destroying them even more!

I was disappointed when the photograph surfaced. I thought about this young man who had worked so hard to achieve his goals! … I did not want to witness him losing everything! … This is a very young person who will have many life experiences. … We’ve all made choices we would not make today!… Who are we to judge him? … He will have to answer to his maker!!!! ….. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone!!!!

He does not have to prove anything to anyone! … Who are all of these anonymous opinionated folk anyway? … They do not matter in the whole sceme of things! Phelps Family Stay Strong!… Tell these invisible and visible folk to … Kiss Your 8 Gold Medals A—!!!

By L. C. on 04/10/2009 1:23 pm

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LC, I agree with you. One of the things that really bugged me about the whole Phelps photo scandal was people going around saying "He shouldn’t be treated any different than the rest of us just because he’s a celebrity!" Well, if he was treated the same as the rest of us, the photo never would have come to light; the *only* reason that that photo surfaced and made headlines is because he *is* a celebrity! If he was treated "just like everyone else", he’d be just another college student doing pot that no one cared about.

Have you noticed how passionate yet fickle we are regarding celebrities, at least in the US (is it the same around the world? I don’t know)? There are no "indifferent" opinions; we either love or despise them, and, often enough, we turn very quickly from "loving" to "hating". It’s really quite absurd — not only that we can form such passionate opinions about people we know next to nothing about, but that we can reverse them so absolutely and swiftly.

Strange! :P

By Rachel F on 04/10/2009 1:46 pm

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The man won the US tons of Gold Medals, is an incredible athlete like none other we have seen before in the water, and has to eat 12,000 calories a day. Let the young man smoke some cannabis. I don’t understand how him partaking of cannabis makes him a bad role model, or that it “is a bad example for children”. How? The man worked hard, stayed active, kept his body trim, his mind focused, determined to succeed… and he smoked pot. Sorry that’s not the message the War on Drugs wants to make - but it’s the truth nonetheless. There are millions of peaceful, well-meaning and otherwise law-abiding citizens who use cannabis - that’s the message that should be shown to children: The Truth, not the idealized, polished version.

By Amanda C on 04/10/2009 2:14 pm

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Well, breaking the law (whether you agree or disagree with it) *is* a bad example; in fairness, though, Phelps never intended that anyone (except his fellow "law breakers", lol :P) should know about it. What he did was done at a party attended by adults doing the same thing. The best role models are still human beings; to suddenly pretend that smoking pot (an activity engaged in at some point or another by, I would venture, a majority of his peers — not to mention at least the last three presidents of the United States…) makes him a pariah is just ridiculous.

By Rachel F on 04/10/2009 2:29 pm

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Sometimes breaking an unjust law is moral. I’m not comparing the two, but just for the sake of argument, Rosa Parks broke a law, and everyone holds her up as a role model for young people to stand up for what she believed in. While having the right to smoke pot seems like a childish thing to want, the fact that we don’t have the right to choose what we put into our bodies is something that needs to be changed. Especially when we have tobacco and alcohol (which have both been proven to damage brain cells, have a negative impact on the fetus of a pregnant woman, and kill you) to choose from legally.

The fact of this whole matter is that cannabis is a natural herb that should be legalized for recreational and medicinal use - if that was so, this talented young man wouldn’t have been attacked for simply indulging a little in a substance of his preference.

By Amanda C on 04/10/2009 2:34 pm

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"I’m not comparing the two, but just for the sake of argument, Rosa Parks broke a law, and everyone holds her up as a role model for young people to stand up for what she believed in."

True enough, but they are radically different things. Parks was fighting for equality, and the law she broke was in violation of the law of the land (the Constitution). The Constitution ensures equality under the law for all (thereby making discriminatory laws illegal); there’s nothing in there about preserving one’s right to smoke pot. ;) Furthermore, Parks was making a public statement that she was defying what she held to be [and what was] an illegal law; Phelps was engaging in a clandestine breaking of the law (he wasn’t making a statement, he was having [illegal] fun — and didn’t want to get caught).

"the fact that we don’t have the right to choose what we put into our bodies is something that needs to be changed."

Putting deadly substances in our bodies with the intent to end one’s life is also illegal. That would be a "right to choose what we put into our bodies" too, and I think it’s a good thing that the law doesn’t condone it. :P

By Rachel F on 04/10/2009 3:05 pm

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The Constitution ensures equality under the law for all (thereby making discriminatory laws illegal);

Indeed, so I don’t understand why people who enjoy recreationally enjoying alcohol or tobacco or salvia divinorum are allowed to indulge, but cannabis users are breaking laws that cause taxpayers millions of dollars every year in court costs and prison costs. I don’t see that as equal - especially when alcohol is more dangerous and can kill you in a single drinking binge, whilst cannabis has never killed a single person.

I must disagree with you about voluntary suicide as well - if we do not own our own bodies to decide when and how we die, we have nothing. I have a family member who is in severe pain from medical complications, and she simply cannot afford pain meds, and if she could, the doctor wouldn’t prescribe them anyway (another can of worms there…). She has told me in plain terms that she wishes she could kill herself because she can’t end the pain. I believe in her right to end her life. I just wish she was afforded the pain meds she needs to continue her life so she doesn’t feel the need to kill herself every day to end the suffering.

Also, there are plenty of people working for the legalization of pot - in addition, I venture a guess to say that Rosa Parks was NOT the first, last or only person to defy the discriminatory law about separating blacks from whites.

By Amanda C on 04/10/2009 3:33 pm

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I think you and I can agree that we’re not going to agree on the danger and the rightness or wrongness of pot’s illegality, so I’ll leave that alone.;)

I did want to say, though, that I wasn’t speaking of voluntary suicide as a result of terminal illness when I made that comment. I’m of the opinion that, in the case of painful terminal illness, the person should be able to end their life (I just don’t see a reason to make a dying person suffer longer). I’ve been told that, from different religious perspectives, this is a grave sin, and I suppose that this is the reason that a lot of people oppose it; but I don’t see how it could be wrong to hasten what is already underway, and spare the sufferer a great deal of pain in the process. :P Anyway, my comment was concerning more general suicides, not that particular.

Finally, please accept my sympathy for your family member!

By Rachel F on 04/10/2009 3:58 pm

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Thank you for your warm thoughts, Rachel. But, she is not terminally ill. She has a back problem that makes her life a living hell. She cannot sleep, she vomits everything she eats, but she is not going to die from her problem. But she is definitely being driven to wanting to kill herself from the pain. And it hurts me that doctors are not helping her.

Anyway, my comment was concerning more general suicides, not that particular.

Another reason healthcare should be socialized and free for Americans - a lot of suicidal and depressed people can’t hold a job because of their depression. I’ve been there - it seems so silly now since I’ve gotten the help and medication I need, but others who can’t afford it aren’t being served. They need assistance, warm and loving assistance to get over their medical problems.

But another thing - pot has been shown by unbiased scientific and historical studies that it is not harmful except for some lung damage connected to the act of smoking (which is shown with smoking anything - if you ate the cannabis it would not have those effects) and some short-term memory loss.

By Amanda C on 04/10/2009 4:09 pm

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I’m very sorry to hear about her condition, and I agree absolutely that we need healthcare available for everyone. It’s truly astonishing how much life saving procedures cost — or, in your relative’s case, medications that would allow her to live. My mom (who was diagnosed within the last couple of months with diabetes and heart disease) recently suffered a heart attack, was hospitalized for over a week and a half, had a number of tests run, and had a triple bypass surgery. The bills are just astronomical — and she had good insurance! Without insurance, even if she sold her home, she literally would not have been able to afford to live — because, without that surgery, she wouldn’t have lived. That’s ridiculous, and wrong.

As for eating rather than smoking cannabis, I don’t know enough about the effects of it when consumed in this manner to have an opinion one way or the other; but, from the little that I do know, I would definitely agree that it is much healthier to eat it than smoke it (avoiding all the lung problems). :-)

By Rachel F on 04/10/2009 4:29 pm

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The bills are just astronomical — and she had good insurance!

You poor thing. I am thinking of you and your family.

*Hugs* You have a relaxing weekend.

By Amanda C on 04/10/2009 4:31 pm

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Thanks, and you too. :)

By Rachel F on 04/10/2009 4:51 pm

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Another American Hero - so what if he smoked some pot. Big deal. Leave the kid alone. Wonder how much the tattle tale made because it is always about the money and sometimes never about the facts!

By canuck canuck on 04/11/2009 1:09 pm

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I hope the kid who took the photo and sold it is real proud of himself when he looks in the mirror!

By Lee Harrison on 04/12/2009 8:13 pm

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Debbie Phelps seems to be a remarkable woman. Can you imagine the CHAT she must have had with Michael after those photos came out? Glad I wasn’t there!

By nanchan u on 04/13/2009 12:50 am