Shirley Temple was so tormented by the pressures of fame that the child star secretly turned to cigarettes to calm her nerves!
In the 1930s, Hollywood portrayed smoking as glamorous.
But Shirley’s lifelong obsessive habit led to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and her death at age 85 in her Woodside, Calif., home in February 2014.
COPD causes coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and makes even basic activities like walking, bathing and cooking, difficult.
“Shirley became a recluse,” said a source.
“She knew smoking had caused COPD, and there was no cure.
“As her health deteriorated, she insisted there be no services, memorials or gravesite — and no autopsy, when she died.
“It was a secret she wanted to take to her grave!”
Even after the star of “Curly Top” and “Little Miss Marker” quit films in her late teens and became a career diplomat, “she tried desperately to hide the nasty habit to protect her ‘goody goody’ image,” added the insider.
Shirley’s family also tried to keep her smoking secret.
When she died, they nixed an autopsy.
But the truth was in her death certificate: Pneumonia and COPD!
