Hollywood has become synonymous with a life of luxury and the thrill of chasing career dreams, but all of that hype can often lead to downward spirals. Abusive relationships with drugs and alcohol run rampant in the hills, and many celebrities fall victim to its charms and its ability to allow an escape from reality. As actors and actresses of all ages face battles with addiction, many come out of it as a healthier, more resilient people and are willing to share their stories of sobriety with the world.
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Demi Lovato
Throughout her journey to sobriety, Demi Lovato has remained open about her addictions with drugs, alcohol and her on-going struggles with eating disorders. The singer first acknowledged she was battling addiction in 2010 after she punched one of her dancers during the Jonas Brothers: Live in Concert tour. She entered and completed her treatment in 2011 where she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which helped her better understand some of her behaviours.
In her 2017 YouTube documentary Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated Lovato admitted that her 2011 treatment didn’t stick and that she had continued to battle her additions up to and including the taping of the documentary where she later admitted she was under the influence of cocaine. Since then, Lovato has completed further treatments and has remained transparent about her struggles with addiction, often providing fans with specific details around her former drug use and the continued impact celebrity life has on body image and positivity.
In her 2017 YouTube documentary Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated Lovato admitted that her 2011 treatment didn’t stick and that she had continued to battle her additions up to and including the taping of the documentary where she later admitted she was under the influence of cocaine. Since then, Lovato has completed further treatments and has remained transparent about her struggles with addiction, often providing fans with specific details around her former drug use and the continued impact celebrity life has on body image and positivity.
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Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr. became a household name in the ‘80s, but as his popularity began to rise, so did his addiction to drugs. Downey kept things mainly under wraps until 1996 when he was arrested for possession of heroin and cocaine. The actor continued to get arrested multiple times and found himself in and out of jail until 2001 when he was arrested for breaking parole after being
found under suspicion of influence while wandering barefoot around Culver City, California. This time, Downey was ordered to rehab, and in 2003, his wife gave him an ultimatum, which led him to finally getting clean. Since then, Downey has spoken openly about his addiction, especially when it comes to its impact on his career. He credits meditation, yoga, and therapy, along with his wife, as the cornerstones of what has kept him sober, ultimately leading him to the height of his career and paved the way to becoming Iron Man.
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Ben Affleck
With a family history of alcohol abuse, Ben Affleck always felt sensitive towards addiction in its many forms. His mother first noticed an issue with alcohol when Affleck was only fifteen years old. He wouldn’t become sober until his twenties and went on the record in early interviews that he had a complicated relationship with alcohol. Those habits would follow Affleck throughout his career as a successful actor with documented experiences with alcohol and subsequent treatment for his addictions over the course of 2011 to 2018. At the beginning of 2020, Affleck began openly speaking about the emotional pain he experienced after his divorce with Jennifer Garner was finalized. This honesty led him to a very intimate interview with The New York Times where he opened about his struggles with anxiety, depression, addiction and the rise and fall of his career and marriage.
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Brad Pitt
Coming out of the finalization of his divorce from Angelina Jolie in 2019, Brad Pitt became increasingly comfortable discussing his issues with alcohol with the media. He attributes his relationship with the bottle as a direct result of the fame he faced during the ‘90s. He didn’t know how to handle it and turned to alcohol to numb himself. This behaviour would impact his relationship with Jolie, and more specifically, their son Maddox. While on a 12-hour flight from France to LA, Pitt was heavily drinking and got into an altercation with Maddox, prompting Jolie to file for divorce. The actor entered an all-male Alcoholics Anonymous program for more than a year and a half and claims it saved his life from crashing any further.
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Carrie Fisher
Perhaps one of the most open celebrities when it comes to the journey through addiction, Carrie Fisher, held nothing back when she spoke frankly about her drug and alcohol abuse before her death in 2016. Fisher highlighted her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and how it eventually led to her heavy use of prescription pills and cocaine. The actress suggested that using these drugs helped her manage the personalities she was facing in her mind. She dives deeper on these topics and more across several works of fiction and non-fiction, written from 1987 up to the year of her death. In the later years of her sobriety, Fisher sought comfort in her emotional support dog Gary, which daughter Billie Lourd would take in after Fisher’s passing.
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Bradley Cooper
Before he was famous for films that saw him crashing weddings, battling hangovers and singing next to Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper was fighting substance abuse and addiction. In his early twenties, Cooper took up partying as his main sport and allowed alcohol to control his happiness and impact his overall behaviour. It wasn’t until his late twenties that Cooper began to realize that his addiction to drugs and alcohol (paired with his hard-partying ways) was ultimately ruining a life he loved. The actor has been very open with the media about his history with addiction and recalls a particular night at a party when he smashed his head against concrete to impress the crowd as the night he realized there was something deeper going on. Only after this incident did the actor seek treatment and has prided himself on maintaining his sobriety ever since.
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Elton John
While rising to top as one of the world’s greatest artists in the early ‘70s, Elton John was managing his shy personality with cocaine, a drug that made him feel more comfortable on and off stage. It took years of sobriety before the artist would speak publicly of his addictions, but now he’s sharing lessons from his past as a means of helping others in their future efforts to fight addiction. He credits his relationship with AIDS patient, Ryan White, as the turning point in his sobriety. While helping White and his family during their battle with AIDS, John realized they were actually helping him. Within six months after White’s passing, John became clean and sober and has been ever since.
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Drew Barrymore
When she became a child star at the young age of seven years old, Drew Barrymore found herself in the manic world of drugs and alcohol with little adult supervision. Her mother began taking her to clubs when she was only nine years old, at which point Barrymore began experimenting with drugs, alcohol and hanging out with adults who should have known better. As a result, Barrymore’s mother, Jaid, entered her in rehab when she turned thirteen. Barrymore would spend a year and a half in rehab with little visitation from her mother. She became legally emancipated from her parents when she was just fourteen. The actress maintained a wild streak throughout most of her twenties and remained open about her early childhood struggles with addiction, most of which is covered in her memoir Little Girl Lost. Since then, Barrymore has created a beautiful career for herself, reconciled with her estranged mother and raised a family of her own.
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Daniel Radcliffe
He may not have been drinking while on the set of the Harry Potter films, but Daniel Radcliffe is quick to admit that he often arrived at the set drunk from the night before. While playing Harry Potter in his teen years, Radcliffe found it incredibly challenging to deal with his new fame and grew increasingly paranoid he was being watched. As a means to cope, Radcliffe turned to alcohol and would continue to abuse the drink until his friends helped pull him out of the dark. The actor has remained sober since 2010 and continues to speak out about the struggles child stars face with substance abuse and how that can lead them down darker paths without the right people in their corner.
See also: 20 richest child stars of all time.
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Rob Lowe
There’s no arguing that Rob Lowe was a much sought after heartthrob in the ‘80s, and it was during this time that the actor began to drink excessively as a means of battling his fame. Lowe takes readers along his journey through sobriety in his popular memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends. He recounts the set of The Outsiders where beer was readily available and consumed by actors as young as fifteen. But it wasn’t until a video of Lowe having sex with a minor emerged in the late ‘80s that the actor realized that he needed to seek help. Lowe maintains he wasn’t aware the woman was underage and blamed much of his behaviour on his addiction to alcohol. He’s been sober for over 25 years and continues to speak publicly about his road to sobriety.
Jessica Simpson’s abusive relationship with alcohol is...
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Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson’s abusive relationship with alcohol is well-documented in her memoir, Open Book. Since it’s release in early 2020, the singer and fashion-mogul has spoken honestly with her fans and the media about her battle with alcohol and pills as a result of early childhood trauma and the rise and fall of her career and failed relationships. Simpson holds nothing back in the book and recent interviews, admitting specific times she was drunk in public, including various television talk shows appearance and while trick-or-treating with her kids. She got clean in 2017 and hasn’t looked back since.
You may also like: 20 celebrity parenting books with surprisingly good advice.
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Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry began drinking before he became famous for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, and that behaviour continued to consume him throughout much of the series. In addition to alcohol, Perry became addicted to Vicodin after a jet ski accident in 1997. The actor sought treatment for his dependency on the prescription pills that same year in a 28-day program. In 2000, Perry shocked the world when he emerged 20 pounds lighter; looking worse for wear. He again entered rehab in 2001 for addiction to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol. The actor would enter himself in rehab again in 2011 as a presumptive measure. In various interviews after his sobriety, Perry would admit that he doesn’t remember much of his time on Friends through seasons three and six. After getting clean, Perry became a celebrity spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and went to Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress in support of funding for drug courts.
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Jason Wahler
Reality TV isn’t without its dramatic highs and lows, and for Jason Wahler, it was the growing popularity of MTV’s Laguna Beach that found him drinking and doing drugs on a regular basis. These actions heightened during season one of The Hills, and the years following the show would find Wahler on a downward spiral that eventually had him contemplating suicide as a means of removing himself from the dark web he had weaved. After seeking treatment for his addictions, Wahler reached out his former girlfriend and Laguna Beach and The Hills alum, Lauren Conrad to make amends. He’s stated that his addiction to alcohol and cocaine was the demise of their relationship, and after coming out of it on the other side, he knew it was time to apologize for the pain he caused them both during their stint on the show.
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Stacey Dash
It wasn’t until 2016 that the world would learn what Stacey Dash was battling behind the scenes of her fame. In her memoir, There Goes My Social Life: From Clueless to Conservative, she describes being offered her first line of cocaine at sixteen and how it spiralled an addiction that followed her to Hollywood. While managing a damaging relationship with cocaine, Dash found herself in a series of physically abusive relationships that forced her to defend herself on more than one occasion. She was able to get clean coming out of her twenties and has remained open with the media about her experiences.
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Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran became so tempted by the thrill of drugs and alcohol in Hollywood that he began to slip in and out of behaviour he knew would end in a blaze of pain if he fell any deeper into it. With that in mind, Sheeran decided to take a year off so he could regain his focus. He has described his introduction to drugs and alcohol as something that started in crowds at parties, but when he began bringing that destructive behaviour to his home while he was alone — it got dark. He also credits reconnecting with a former high school flame during his year off as a moment of grounding that helped him stick to a path that didn’t include any further substance abuse.
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The Weeknd
While he has never acknowledged his drug use as a problem he needs to seek help for, Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, admits that he has relied on heavy drug use in the past to deal with his pain and writer’s block. In fact, the singer has been candid in saying that he relied on drugs while recording several of his records, and that some tracks ended up as seven minute long songs full of rambles that didn’t necessarily make sense. To that end, The Weeknd has made it clear in interviews that he refuses to perform under the influence, including avoiding alcohol before he hits the stage, but that sometimes, he can’t create his music while entirely sober.
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Nicole Richie
When it comes to her relationship with drugs and alcohol, Nicole Richie is quick to admit that she turned to the substances because she was bored with celebrity life. She had it all, and nothing excited her any longer, so she turned to a life of partying to live outside of herself. After facing several arrests for driving under the influence, failed sobriety, possession of heroin, and an incident at a bar where she entered a public brawl, Richie found herself in and out of rehab to try to get clean. Her final arrest in 2011 probed her to take sobriety more seriously, and she found success in getting clean and later building an empire for herself while settling into family life with her husband Joel Madden and their two children.
See also: The healthiest celebs of 2020.
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Russell Brand
Another celebrity who has been extremely outspoken about his fight with addiction is Russell Brand. While abusing drugs, Brand was arrested on 12 different occasions and was caught in a series of weird and inappropriate acts that made the media and critics publicize his downfall. The actor and comedian has been sober since the end of 2002 and continues to educate others on the impact of drug use and addiction and how it nearly destroyed his life. He’s written several books that describe his exposure to substance abuse and his long voyage to sobriety. Brand has also acted as a sponsor for several people during the rehabilitation stage of their treatment process.
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Zac Efron
After branching away from his teen-star status, Zac Efron found himself drinking and using drugs, the deeper he fell into a life in Hollywood. The actor was filming back to back movies and was still trying to keep up with the lifestyle of a famous actor in his twenties. But feeling isolated and as if something was severely missing from his life, Efron leaned on alcohol to keep his momentum going. He credits therapy and Alcoholics Anonymous as the programs that helped save him from himself. Since then, Efron has been forthright with his struggle and admits that it’s a challenge he still has to face each day in order to stay clean and happy.
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Deryck Whibley
Deryck Whibley’s struggle with alcoholism was a direct result of the hard-partying ways that often follow rock stars in their prime. But after years of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, Whibley’s body began to give up on him at a rapid pace. In 2014, the Sum 41 frontman was diagnosed with liver failure and began publicly speaking out about his frail physical state and his hopes to get clean. While facing sobriety, Whibley stated that the process made him feel like he was slowly losing his mind while battling insecurities and fears of schizophrenia. Since getting clean, he’s embraced a return to the stage with his band and says performing sober has been a rewarding journey where he can once again feel the experience instead of being numbed by it.
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