Pam Grier on rocky love affair with Richard Pryor: I saw him ‘ruining his life’

Pam Grier was only romantically involved with comedian Richard Pryor for about a year during the 1970s.

However, the “Foxy Brown” star, 73, still remembers the impact their relationship had on her. The pair dated from 1975 until 1976 and their love affair was a tumultuous one.

Grier recalled in an interview with Fox News how his drug abuse contributed to the fall of their partnership.

She discussed one moment that occurred in 1980 when Pryor — who died at 65 in 2005 — poured 151 proof rum on himself and then lit himself on fire following a cocaine binge.

He suffered third-degree burns and Grier said she refused to visit him in the hospital.

“He respected me for my decision,” the “Coffy” star said. “Richard had a way of trying to figure out whether he could trust the people that were around him.

“If you hung around him constantly, it meant that you were just there for the money and fame. Then he had no respect for you. I would tell him, ‘I don’t need your fame or your light. I need nothing from you,’ ” she continued.

“When I left, I indicated to him that I would never talk to him again,” she said. “I had no reason to. But as hard as it was for me, I felt he was getting all of these opportunities that I would never get in Hollywood as a woman.”

Grier went on: “So, you go ahead and be a victim. You go ahead and be weak and stupid and squander all these incredible opportunities that Hollywood wants to offer you that I’ll never get.

“It’s hard to tell that to someone you love. But he had to manage his addiction. He had to manage his talent. I just couldn’t put myself in that situation … I saw him beating himself up and ruining his life,” she added.

In the “Bless This Mess” actress’ 2010 memoir “Foxy: My Life in Three Acts,” she described some intimate details about her relationships with the “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” actor.

She wrote about how a visit to her doctor led to her breakup with Pryor. Her physician had told her about a medical condition involving a “buildup of cocaine residue around the cervix and in the vagina.”

Her doctor asked if Pryor had dipped his genitals in cocaine before he had sexual intercourse (both oral and vaginal) with Grier. However, she refuted that claim to her doc.

“Not that I know of. It’s not like he has a pile of cocaine next to the bed and he dips his penis in it before we have sex,” she told the medic.

He then asked if perhaps Pryor was doing coke before going to bed and Grier noted that that was a possibility.

“Oh, my God,” the doctor said, according to her memoir. “We have a serious problem here. If he’s not putting it on his skin directly, then it’s worse because the coke is in his seminal fluid.”

The doctor then wondered if her mouth ever went numb while having oral sex and Grier agreed, to which he had linked to the Novocaine-like effects of cocaine.