Leading an alcohol-free life has been a challenge for numerous familiar faces in the spotlight but some celebrities got sober before hitting rock bottom and for unexpected reasons.
For years, multiple stars have candidly opened up about their uphill battle for sobriety, with some like Ben Affleck and Drew Barrymore encouraging individuals to never allow a relapse to stop them in their progress.
Celebs such as Robert Downey Jr. and Eminem boast admirable records of sobriety despite facing considerable obstacles – and even prison – because of their addictions. However, some stars ditched the booze and snubbed the bottle for more specific, and unexpected, reasons.
Cara Delevingne
The model and actress, 31, was fresh out of school when she signed with British modelling agency Storm Management in 2009, right before she quickly rose to fame most notably as one of Karl Lagerfeld’s muses for Chanel.
Reaching the height of her success in her late teens led the Hammersmith A-lister to delve into a world of excess but Cara Delevingne would later reveal to Vogue that her childhood trauma had led her to fall into a downward spiral, involving drugs and alcohol.
But it wasn’t until she was caught behaving erratically at Van Nuys airport in October 2022 that she realised she needed help – and she has paparazzi, who are usually slated by celebrities for their intrusive methods – to thank for the decision.
“All I knew is if I was continuing to go down the road I was, I would either end up dead or, like, doing something really, really stupid,” she told Vogue in 2023. After seeing pictures of herself looking dishevelled and disoriented, Cara committed to a 12-week program and hasn’t looked back ever since.
Remembering her troubling display, she added: “I hadn’t slept. I was not okay. It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point it was like, ‘Okay, I don’t look well’. Sometimes you need a reality check, so in a way those pictures were something to be grateful for.”
Tom Holland
In 2022, Tom Holland resolved to complete a dry January after a “very, very boozy” Christmas weeks prior and the Spiderman actor was terrified when he realised how difficult his days without alcohol were.
“All I could think about was having a drink … It really scared me. I just was like, ‘Wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing’.” This prompted him to extend his sobriety period, which was still an uphill battle for him while in England where socialising and booze were intertwined, according to him.
Taking on the role of Danny Sullivan, loosely based on real-life criminal Billy Milligan – dubbed ‘The Campus Rapist’ – for the Apple TV+ show The Crowded Room eventually led the 27-year-old to rule out alcohol altogether as the series allowed him to “recognise triggers and things that stress (him) out.”
He told Entertainment Weekly in May 2023: “Learning about mental health and the power of it, and speaking to psychiatrists about Danny and Billy’s struggles, has been something that has been so informative to my own life.” As of July, 2023, the actor has been sober for 18 months.
Millie Mackintosh
Made In Chelsea’s Millie Mackintosh has been open about her struggle with anxiety by revealing in 2022 that she began taking medication during lockdown. But her ordeal went from bad to worse when she became a mother to Sienna and Aurelia.
“I have had anxiety most of my life and found helpful tools manage it”, she wrote on Instagram. One of her resolutions was to rule alcohol out of her life – and she has noticed a drastic improvement in her mental health since.
“It was a decision I made because I wanted to improve my mental health and in particular my anxiety levels which were really high, particularly after having the second baby coming out of lockdown”, the 34-year-old explained on social media in July, 2023. “I feel like I’ve really settled into my identity as a Mother, I’ve really loved this year with my girls and we have made so many incredible memories together that I’ll cherish forever”, she added.
While the physical impacts of alcohol are often highlighted, booze can also trigger a series of chemical changes in the brain, leading to more negative feelings, in the likes of anger and anxiety. Overuse of alcohol, as stated by website alcoholchange.org.uk, “can contribute to the worsening of symptoms of many mental health problems.”
But the cerebral dangers can escalate into more worrying conditions: “Long-term heavy drinking can also cause physical changes to the brain, leading to difficulties reasoning, remembering and understanding. These changes are sometimes referred to as alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD), alcohol-related brain injury (ARBI), or even ‘wet brain’.”
Dr Alex George
As a physician, Dr Alex George was probably all too aware of the dangers related to alcohol consumption early on but, despite experiencing no notable issue with booze, the Love Island star revealed he went tee total when he drew the conclusion that drinking brought him nothing positive.
“There is a societal assumption that if someone has gone sober then they must have some serious ‘problem’ and be at ‘rock bottom'”, he clarified in a lengthy Instagram post shared in late 2022 announcing his decision to go sober. “I drink a couple of times a week, and have good ‘control’ of my consumption. But recently I have been questioning why I drink at all.”
He’d added: “I love being able to experience all of the colour in life, in full HD. Alcohol turns down the frequency, distorts the colours and muffles the noise.” Alex made the bold decision to quit alcohol ahead of Christmas – a particularly gruelling time for former drinkers – but he rose to the challenge and celebrated a year of sobriety in 2023.
In December, 2023, he then shared an update with his Instagram followers, flaunting a slimmer physique, as he broke his latest news – he was leaning towards the possibility of never drinking again. “As I stand here over a year alcohol free, I don’t know if I will ever drink again, but I am not going to put myself under a constraint of promising or saying I will never drink again, because I don’t know”, he said in a get-ready-with-me video. “If I decide in the future to have a drink, I will, but it will be a different mindset.”
Anne Hathaway
Over in the US, Anne Hathaway was the latest star to speak about her sobriety during an interview with The New York Times, revealed in late April, 2024. During the chat, she said she’d hit a milestone as she celebrated five years of sobriety.
The Oscar-winning actress made an 18-year-pledge to quit alcohol, which she shared with Ellen DeGeneres in January, 2019, branding her son Jonathan, born in 2016, as her driving force. “For 18 years. I’m going to stop drinking while my son’s living in my house because I don’t totally love the way I do it and he’s getting to the age where he really needs me all the time in the morning”, she said.
During another chat with media company Modern Luxury, Anne added that her drinking hadn’t been a problem – she was simply determined to be as present as possible for her son. “I didn’t put [a drink] down because my drinking was a problem. I put it down because the way I drink leads me to have hangovers and those were the problem. My last hangover lasted for five days.”
However, the 41-year-old hasn’t fully shut the door on booze: “When I’m at a stage in my life where there is enough space for me to have a hangover, I’ll start drinking again, but that won’t be until my kid is out of the house.”
Tyler, The Creator
While he is notoriously private about his personal life, Tyler Gregory Okonma, as he is legally known, has been vocal about why he doesn’t drink alcohol. Back in 2018, during an interview with magazine Fantastic Man was outspoken about his aversion for partying, in contrast with fellow rap stars.
“I just don’t want to drink”, he firmly stated before explaining he would rather “jump on a dirt-bike” than hit the bottle. “I know that I don’t want to be that drunk guy. But I do know I want to hit a jump on a dirt-bike. I can look at that and say: ‘I want to do that.’ I’ve never seen anyone drunk, like, ‘Damn, I want to be that.”
Later on, he added: “I love sunlight. I hate night-time. It’s ugly. It’s just dark and you can’t see. Everything is f****** closed. What do you do at night? (…) I don’t drink and smoke.” Other rappers such as Kendrick Lamar, Big Sean and Nicky Minaj are also known to lead a booze-free life.
Miley Cyrus
Growing up as a Disney child star, Miley Cyrus steered her career away from her care-free Hannah Montana persona in the late noughties, opting for a more mature image and shocking millions of her fans in the process.
But after cultivating an incendiary persona, the Wrecking Ball hitmaker was forced to undergo surgery on her throat in late 2019, after she was diagnosed with Reinke’s oedema – which refers to the swelling of the vocal chords due to the presence of fluid – and emerged sober from the experience.
“I kind of learned a lot about the voice and how our experiences affect our voice”, the singer told Joe Rogan during a candid chat for the Joe Rogan Experience in 2020. “Over the last year I noticed a really big change to my voice, kind of a heaviness to it. And I experienced some heavy things.” She added: “I feel like it is a reflection. It is a kind of scar in a sense. But also kind of having the surgery was a gift because I was able to understand my instrument.”
After a small slip-up in late 2020, proving that sobriety journeys are never linear, Miley continued her progress with the support of those closest to her, particularly her mother Tish.
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