Actress Cybill Shepherd has come clean about her drug abuse to her kids - because she hopes her honesty will stop them from following her bad example.

The MOONLIGHTING star was advised to keep her past dabblings with cocaine and hallucinogenic mushrooms to herself when talking to her children about the dangers of drugs, but she decided honesty was the best policy.

She says, "I've been honest. There are different ways that parents can choose to deal with it. They can just lie... if you ever did anything. That's not the approach I took."

Shepherd, who reveals her experiences with mushrooms were "horrible", fears for today's teenagers because there are so many dangerous drugs available to them.

She adds, "Right now for children there's so many more drugs that are so much scarier. I don't know what the thing is about poisoning yourself like that. Poison yourself with something good - like a martini."