19 Celebrities Who Got Totally Candid About Their Alcohol And Substance Addictions, And How They Cope While Getting Sober
This post deals heavily with topics of alcohol and drug addiction, and suicide ideation.
1.Tom Holland challenged himself to do "dry January" in 2022, after a "boozy December," which ultimately made him reevaluate his relationship with alcohol. "All I could think about was having a drink. … I was waking up thinking about it," he said. "It really scared me."
He shared that after he completed January alcohol-free, he decided to "punish" himself more and try to get through February sober too. "If I can do two months off, I can prove to myself that I don't have a problem," he told Jay Shetty. "Two months go by, and I was still really struggling. I felt like I couldn't be social. I felt like I couldn't go to the pub and have a lime soda. I couldn't go out for dinner, I was really, really struggling and I started to really worry that I had an alcohol problem." He said that he extended his sober experiment to his birthday, June 1, and by the time it rolled around he was "the happiest [he's] ever been in [his] life."
2.Emma Chamberlain opened up about her "very severe" nicotine addiction after she started vaping to cope with her instant fame. "I have had a constant stream of nicotine in my system for the past five years. Not a day has gone by…where I haven't consumed nicotine in some form," she said.
In a recent episode of her podcast, Anything Goes, she shared that she started vaping shortly after moving to LA and starting her YouTube channel at 17. "When I was 17, 18, sitting at a computer all day was really hard for me. It was just hard to motivate ... myself to sit there all day and get it done," she said. "But with a little boost of nicotine, I could go all day. I don't know why it helped so much, but it did. It kept me focused and motivated all day in a weird way." She also added that her depression diagnosis made her "more careless about what [she] did to [herself]."
She said she's in the process of quitting, but the side effects have been making it extremely difficult, saying, "I would immediately become emotional, irritable, and just obsessed with figuring out how I [could] find nicotine in some form."
3.Liam Payne recently shared that he's six months sober after spending 100 days in a rehabilitation facility. "I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself, actually, because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognize anymore,” he said. “And I’m sure you guys didn’t either.”
“I was in bad shape up until that point and I was really happy more than anything after I arrived to kind of put a stopper to life and work,” he said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “Ever since then, I’ve just been trying to learn to get to know this new guy." He also said that he feels like he has a "better grip on life now."
4.Demi Lovato has been extremely open about her struggle with addiction following her nearly fatal overdose in 2018. She shared that she's "clean and sober" after going through treatment in 2021.
In their 2021 documentary, Dancing with the Devil, Demi explained that they were living a "California sober" lifestyle, which meant they'd drink alcohol and use marijuana in moderation, but no hard drugs. However, shortly after, they could "no longer support [their] 'California sober' ways," and said that "sober sober is the only way to be."
5.Matthew Perry shared that his relationship with alcohol began when he was just a teenager. "I had never been happier than in that moment," he said about the first time he drank. He also said that his substance abuse began after he hurt his neck in a jet-ski accident while filming and an on-set doctor gave him Vicodin to relieve his pain. "As the pill kicked in, something clicked in me," he said. "And it’s been that click that I’ve been chasing the rest of my life."
During the fall of 2022, he did an interview with the New York Times while promoting his book — Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing — and shared that, at the time, he was 18 months alcohol- and drug-free. He added, “[Sobriety is] still a day-to-day process of getting better. Every day. It doesn’t end because I [wrote this book].”
6.Drew Barrymore shared that she'd started drinking alcohol when she was just 9 years old and started doing drugs shortly after. By the time she was 13, she was entered into a rehabilitation facility. She's since opened up about her struggles with alcohol and has been sober for about four years now.
She first shared that she was alcohol-free back in 2021. At the time, she was two and a half years sober. In an essay, she elaborated by saying that quitting alcohol was "one of the most liberating things in [her] journey of life," and that it allowed her "to finally become free of the torture of guilt and dysfunction."
7.Selma Blair shared that she struggled with alcohol addiction for years and revealed that the first time she got "very drunk" was at a Passover celebration when she was only 7 years old. "When I drank, I didn’t know what drama I would find, but I knew it was drama that I would feel," she said. "I needed it. I looked forward to it. It was always my way out."
She also said that alcohol put her in a dark place and caused her to attempt suicide several times. After one attempt, she began attending Alcoholics Anonymous sessions. "With the introduction of AA, I felt hope for the first time in my life," she wrote. Last year, Selma shared that she's been sober since 2016.
8.Tom Felton turned to alcohol during the years after the Harry Potter franchise ended and shared that his team held a “painful and humiliating” intervention and suggested he go to rehab. Then, while he was there, he "escaped" less than 24 hours after checking in. “My lawyer, whom I’d barely ever met face to face, spoke with quiet honesty,” he said. “‘Tom,’ he said, ‘I don’t know you very well, but you seem like a nice guy. All I want to tell you is that this is the seventeenth intervention I’ve been to in my career. Eleven of them are now dead. Don’t be the twelfth.'”
“All of a sudden, the frustration burst out of me,” he wrote in his memoir. “I was, I realize now, completely sober for the first time in ages and I had an overwhelming sense of clarity and anger. I started screaming at God, at the sky, at everyone and no one, full of fury for what had happened to me, for the situation in which I found myself. I yelled, full-lung, at the sky and the ocean. I yelled until I’d let it all out, and I couldn’t yell anymore.”
He said he'd gone back to rehab a couple more times before it finally began to work for him. "I can honestly say it was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. But the very fact that I was able to admit to myself that I needed some help — and I was going to do something about it — was an important moment,” he said. “I am no longer shy of putting my hands up and saying: I’m not okay."
9.Jodie Sweetin dealt with alcohol and drug abuse for about 15 years until she got sober in 2005. She recalled a time when she was intoxicated at a movie premiere but no one even noticed. "I was pulling off the deceit. It was hard for people to believe I was doing that much drugs," she said. "I look at photos from that event, and I didn't even look strung out!"
She also said in 1996 she had gotten so drunk at Candace Cameron Bure's wedding that she vomited and had to be carried out. She added, "I probably had two bottles of wine, and I was only 14. That first drink gave me the self-confidence I had been searching for my whole life. But that set the pattern of the kind of drinking that I would do."
But now that she's sober, she has a more positive view of her journey. She said, "I speak about my experience growing up in the entertainment business, what my life was like after, some of the struggles and things I went through and where my life is today. It's a story with a message of second chances and turning things around and being able to overcome some adversity."
10.Jamie Lee Curtis opened up about her addiction to Vicodin that she'd kept a secret for "over 10 years." She remembered the time a friend watched her take five pills along with a sip of wine and said, “I heard this voice: ‘You know, Jamie, I see you. I see you with your little pills, and you think you’re so fabulous and so great, but the truth is you’re dead. You’re a dead woman.’”
In 1999, she read an article that Esquire writer Tom Chiarella had written about his addiction to painkillers, and it inspired her to attend her first recovery meeting. She said that she has been sober ever since.
11.Cara Delevingne recalled that her first experience misusing alcohol was during a family wedding when she was just 7 years old. In her journey to recovery, she realized that it's not always linear and she's really had to work for it. She said, “This process obviously has its ups and downs, but I’ve started realizing so much. People want my story to be this after-school special where I just say, ‘Oh look, I was an addict, and now I’m sober and that’s it.’ And it’s not as simple as that. It doesn’t happen overnight. ... Of course I want things to be instant — I think this generation especially, we want things to happen quickly — but I’ve had to dig deeper.”
Cara also shared that committing to the 12-step program has been the most life-affirming decision for her and her recovery. She said, “Before I was always into the quick fix of healing, going to a weeklong retreat or to a course for trauma, say, and that helped for a minute, but it didn’t ever really get to the nitty-gritty, the deeper stuff. This time, I realized that 12-step treatment was the best thing, and it was about not being ashamed of that. The community made a huge difference. The opposite of addiction is connection, and I really found that in 12-step.”
12.Jamie Campbell Bower shared that he was in an "active addiction" 13 and a half years ago. "Hurting myself and those around me who I loved the most. It got so bad that eventually I ended up in a hospital for mental health," he wrote in a tweet published last summer. "I am now 7 1/2 years clean and sober. I have made many mistakes in my life... But each day is a chance to start again. Atone for mistakes and grow."
"For anyone who wakes up thinking 'oh god not again' I promise you there's a way," he added. "I'm so grateful to be where I am, I'm so grateful to be sober. I'm so grateful to be. Remember, we are all works in progress."
13.Lucy Hale revealed that she'd been working on getting sober since she was 22 years old. She's now 33, and as of February of this year, she had "a little over a year of sobriety." "It took time. It took patience with myself," she said. "I just held on to that belief that the real Lucy came out when she was drinking. It also quieted my mind. ... My brain just doesn't shut off and it's exhausting. I was a textbook binge drinker, blackout, wouldn't remember what I did or what I said, which is scary.”
She elaborated, saying that she'd never been a "normal, moderate drinker." She said, “I was willing to go to this crazy dark place every time. Of course I tried to be a moderate drinker, just having two. I have an allergy to alcohol. I cannot drink. I view it as an allergy. My brain doesn't work the same way as someone who can just have a glass of wine. It always wants more. It's craving that feeling.”
14.Daniel Radcliffe began abusing alcohol around the time when the Harry Potter franchise came to an end, and he opened up about being sober since 2010. He said, "I definitely think a lot of the drinking that happened towards the end of Potter, and for a little bit after it finished, it was panic and not knowing what to do next, and not being comfortable enough in who I was to remain sober."
He added that it felt "weird" to give up alcohol in his early 20s, but ultimately he was "very, very happy" with the choice. "But I will always be fascinated and frustrated by the question of, 'Is this something that would have happened anyway, or was this to do with Potter?’" he said.
15.Zac Efron quit drinking back in 2013, after a brief time in a rehab center. He said his sobriety helped him find "structure" in his life after realizing that his immense fame was a trigger. "That [journey] led me to a balance of opposites: You get out of life what you put in."
He continued, "There was a moment when my morning routine was, like, get up and google yourself. But that stopped, dramatically and instantly, probably [when I stopped drinking]. I realized that viewing yourself through other people's pictures is not living your own life. I wasn't really being myself. A lot of my hobbies had gone out the window. I couldn't skateboard or surf for fear of being followed. Crossing the line of fear is what leads to greatness."
16.Miley Cyrus shared that she was "sober sober" back in 2020 and said that her family history of addiction is what made her reevaluate her relationship with alcohol and substances. "I did a lot of family history, which has a lot of addiction and mental health challenges. So just going through that and asking, 'Why am I the way that I am?' By understanding the past, we understand the present and the future much more clearly," she said.
She added that she loves waking up and feeling "100%, 100% of the time," but also knows there's a stigma around being sober as a young person, saying, "It’s really hard, especially being young...there’s that stigma of 'you’re no fun'. It’s like, 'Honey, you can call me a lot of things, but I know that I’m fun.'"
17.Naomi Campbell shared that she struggled with addiction during the early '00s. "The time between 1998 and 2005 was especially bad," she said. "During that time, I avoided looking in the mirror, because I didn't like the person who was looking back at me. To be honest, there were times I thought I wouldn't survive. I used to have a lot of problems. Amongst others, I drank too much, so I joined Alcoholics Anonymous to get and stay sober."
Years later, in an interview, she said, "I want to lead a calm life, I'm done with partying. When you get older, things that seemed important to you when you were 20 suddenly lose significance. The thing is, as a model you're used to being on the go, so just the thought of sitting down and thinking about something drives you crazy. ... So I had to find out what I wanted and what I didn't want. I've grown up. I've stopped driving myself to exhaustion."
18.Nicki Minaj shared that she is "sober & loving life" in a series of tweets. She added, "I used to [be] happy when I was high. Now I'm happy when I'm sober. No judgement to anyone. Be gentle with yourself. 🎀."
19.Finally, Chrissy Teigen shared that she was alcohol-free last year and said, "I miss feeling loopy and carefree sometimes, but to be honest toward the end, it didn’t give that fun feeling anymore anyhow. I drank to end crazy anxiety that later mostly went away when I — get this — quit drinking!"
"I feel really good," she added, explaining that it was frustrating for her to look back on events and experiences and not have a clear memory because they were blurred by alcohol. "There are pictures from huge moments in life where my eyes just look…gone. Some are from real work shoots, some just beach days with the family," she said. "While I honestly STILL don’t know if I’ll never have a drink again, I do know I never want to be that way again. And for now, none is best. I’ll let the bad dreams come up and try to sort them out in therapy, without booze."
