by LOUISA BALLHAUS, SARAH LONG, GIOVANA GELHOREN
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Drew Barrymore, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck — people from all different walks of life battle addiction whether they’re doctors, lawyers, students, stay-at-home moms, professional athletes or performers. And while some struggle in silence for many years, it’s important for them to know that they’re not alone.
When celebrities who have struggled with drug or alcohol addiction speak out, they send a powerful message — and Demi Moore, Jessica Simpson, Oprah Winfrey, and more stars have all made that brave choice.
Demi Moore opened up about her addiction struggles on Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk, letting her daughters speak candidly about how their mother’s addiction had affected them. “It was not the mom that we had grown up with,” Tallulah Willis shared about Moore’s most recent relapse. Talking to Harper’s Bazaar, Moore described the same relapse as “giving my power away,” and vowed to recommit herself to sobriety.
The more stars can help normalize addiction struggles, the easier it is for people to admit they need help and seek treatment. These celebrities and their honesty underline the fact that addiction doesn’t discriminate, and struggling with addiction is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a human experience that, in order to beat, one must first face head-on.
Click through our slideshow of celebrities who’ve struggled with drug and alcohol addictions — and don’t ever be afraid to reach out for help.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you can get help by calling the Drug Addiction Hotline at 1-877-813-5721.
A version of this article was originally published in August 2015.
Photo : Elizabeth Goodenough/Everett Collection.
Billie Joe Armstrong
Green Day icon Billie Joe Armstrong talked about his issues with mental health and substance abuse, when talking about the group’s new album Saviors to People.
“It definitely deals with mental health and addiction,” Armstrong said. “When I say, ‘I was sober, now I’m drunk again,’ that could be looked at two different ways. It could be someone going, ‘F—, yeah. I was sober, now I’m drunk again,’ at a party, or it could be someone that’s fallen. That’s what it means to me, anyway.”
He added, “For me, alcohol gets in the way of everything, from my relationship with my family to just trying to get a good night’s sleep. It gets in the way of my happiness. So that’s why really I wanted to quit, and I was done. So with the friends that I have, I’m still able to go out and go listen to some music, see some band or go to a party — and it’s still a fun, sexy kind of evening, even though there’s no alcohol. And then the next day, I wake up … ” Armstrong adds. “I’m just tired. Now there’s no shame and hangover and all that s—. I feel really good.”
Photo : Getty Images
Adele
In October 2023, Adele revealed that she stopped drinking three months ago.
“I stopped drinking maybe like three and a half months ago,” Adele said during a Las Vegas concert, per People. “I mean, I was literally borderline alcoholic for quite a lot of my 20s.”
Photo : Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Landon Barker
In a recent interview with People, Travis Barker’s 20-year-old son Landon Barker revealed he struggled with alcohol abuse in 2022 after he and his father were going through medical complications. “I think 100 percent it’s important for me to not make that a habit again,” he told the outlet. “I always tell myself, ‘I’ll only drink on special occasions now,’” he added. “I just steer away from everything.”
Photo : Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images
Jared Leto
Actor and 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto recently opened up about his journey with drugs in a tell-all interview with Zane Lowe. “I was always interested in drugs. I was always interested in an experience. I was interested in taking some risk,” Leto told Lowe, per Page Six.
“Addiction is a whole another part of it, of course,” Leto continued. “Taking drugs is one thing, but does it start taking you?”
Leto then added that that’s exactly what happened to him over time. “I took it for a ride, and then it took me for a ride for sure,” he revealed.
His addiction stopped, however, following a “moment of clarity.” “I had an epiphany. There were two paths that I could take in life. I guess is the only way I can describe it,” he explained. “I took that path. I’ve had very close friends that didn’t, and they’re not here anymore. Many.”
Photo : Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Ryan Phillippe
Actor Ryan Phillippe recently opened up to his followers about being sober following longtime substance abuse. “Officially the longest I’ve gone since I was a teen without some kind of nicotine or marijuana in my system (among other things…),” Phillippe revealed on Instagram alongside a mirror selfie. “Feeling thankful for the freedom that comes with breaking addictions and dependency on substance. Sobriety, clarity, and spiritual connectedness feels real good 🙏.” We’re so happy for you!
Photo : Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for WWE.
Paige
Former WWE superstar Paige, who is currently working on a team known as The Outcasts for WWE’s rival company All Elite Wrestling (AEW), recently opened up about her brave battle with addiction. She is five years sober, and credits her boyfriend Ronnie Radke for helping her overcome her alcohol dependency, per DailyMail. But as for her drug addiction, she talked about how many didn’t think she could beat her addiction, but as she said: “Everyone thought I couldn’t do it. But I did.’
Photo : Chris Polk/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images
Bradley Cooper
During a Season 2 episode of National Geographic’s Running Wild With Bear Grylls, Oscar-nominated actor and director Bradley Cooper opened up about his struggles with drugs and alcohol and his journey with sobriety.
“You definitely had some wild years,” Grylls said, per Variety. “In terms of alcohol and drugs, yeah,” the A Star Is Born star responded. “But that had nothing to do with fame, though. I was lucky, I got sober at 29 years old, and I’ve been sober for 19 years. I’ve been very lucky.”
Photo : Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images
Danny Trejo
Danny Trejo recently revealed he’s celebrating his 55th year sober! “I’m 55 years clean and sober today by the grace of God!” the actor wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) alongside a photo of him smiling from ear to ear. “I’ve done this one day at a time, and for anyone out there struggling YOU CAN TOO!” Previously, the actor has been open about his drug use and being incarcerated for possession of drugs, dealing and armed robberies, per USA Today.
Photo : Cindy Ord/WireImage
Tom Holland
The Crowded Room star Tom Holland recently opened up about his journey with alcohol addiction in an interview with Jay Shetty Podcast. “I was definitely addicted to alcohol, not shying away from that at all,” Holland said, adding that he initially just decided to do a “dry January” back in 2022. “All I could think about was having a drink … I was waking up thinking about it. I was checking the clock, when’s it 12 p.m.? It just really scared me,” he remembered.
Noticing his dependence, Holland then challenged himself once again to stay sober until his birthday in June. “By the time I got to June 1, I was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life,” he said. “I could sleep better. I could handle problems better, things that would go wrong on set, that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride. I had so much better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter.” Since that realization, Holland has stayed sober and couldn’t be happier to tell his story.
Photo : Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Simon Pegg
The World’s End star Simon Pegg recently opened up about hiding his alcoholism during movie sets in the past, including Mission Impossible III. “You become very sneaky when you have something like that [alcoholism] in your life,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“You learn how to do it without anyone noticing because it takes over. It wants to sustain itself and it will do everything it can to not be stopped,” he said on the radio program. “But eventually it just gets to a point when it can’t be hidden, and that’s when, thankfully, I was able to pull out of the dive.” According to Pegg, he began his recovery in 2009 after the birth of his daughter.
Photo : Todd Williamson/Bravo via Getty Images
Tom Sandoval
Amidst the ongoing so-called “Scandoval” drama, Vanderpump Rules star Tom Sandoval announced he’s sober. “It’s been one month since I’ve had my last drink of alcohol,” he said in a video obtained by TMZ. “I’m just taking a little break for a second.”
Photo : Derek Leung/Getty Images
Alexander Ludwig
Vikings star Alexander Ludwig recently opened up for the first time on Instagram about his struggles with addiction on the 5th anniversary of his sobriety. “It’s pretty crazy to me that five years ago to the day, I was so lost, so confused and so scared about where my life would go,” he said. “All I knew was that I had an issue and a problem that needed to be fixed.”
The actor continued, “I’ve lost a lot of friends to this disease, so many people didn’t make it and I don’t really know why, because there’s so many reasons why that should have been me and not them. I don’t want to make this video as, like, congratulatory to myself — it’s really just for anybody that needs to see this.” May his story help others who might be going through the same thing.
Photo : Michael Buckner for Variety.
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere opened up to Women’s Health about the effects alcoholism had on her body, and how she recovered. “My body was like, ‘enough,’” she remembered. “I hit 30. My face was swollen. I had jaundice. My eyes were yellow. I had to go to a liver specialist. I was holding on to weight that wasn’t normally there. My hair was thin and coming out in clumps.”
Soon after, in 2021, she entered a treatment center and joined a 12-step program. “I did a lot of work on myself,” Panettiere said. “After eight months of intensive therapy, I felt like I had this blank canvas to work with.”
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Photo : Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Cara Delevingne
Model and actress Cara Delevingne opened up about being four months sober in a January interview with Vogue. “The games, the crazy performances, the escape rooms—I loved giving that to people,” she told the outlet. “They could come here and leave their stress and responsibilities behind, and maybe that sounds like Willy Wonka, but it was the idea that they could come and just be like kids, but in giving that to people, I was kind of stuck in myself.”
Photo : C.M. Wiggins/WENN.
Scott Weiland
Former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland had a long drug-related rap sheet before he died of an accidental overdose in 2015.
“That’s why I always had to do heroin with coke. Fuckin’ do coke for a few hours straight until you’re going out of your mind, the fucking demons are trying to smash through the mirror, and then after that, it’s time to run down the hallway and get into the fucking bag as soon as you can, put that fuckin’ needle in the arm and get that shit in you quick to… to slow the fuckin’ world back down and close that fuckin’ hole to the next dimension. Because once you open it, it’s… you don’t know what can come in,” he told Rolling Stone in 2007.
Photo : Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.
Natalie Cole
Legendary singer Natalie Cole battled addiction in the 1990s, and in 2016, she died of heart failure caused by lung disease.
“There were other problems — exhaustion, the nodule on my throat, but also the drugs,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. “I was under the influence to the point… of not being able to function. The story is drugs — whether it’s cocaine or alcohol — take control of your life. Everything is focused in that direction. You can’t conduct business meetings correctly or even show up for them. Then, your self-respect is gone.”
Photo : Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Betty Ford
During her tenure as first lady from 1974 to 1977, Betty Ford raised awareness for addiction and went public with her long-running battle with alcoholism.
In an interview with Barbara Walters in 1977, Ford spoke on the difficulty of admitting she was an alcoholic, saying, “The word ‘alcoholic’ to me had a feeling — a meaning of being disheveled, drunk — all of those things, so how could I be an alcoholic?”
In 1978, she went into rehab after her family staged an intervention and, in 1982, she founded the famous Betty Ford Center for the treatment of chemical dependency.
Photo : Walter Daran/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin struggled with alcohol and substance abuse for most of her adult life. She died of an accidental heroin overdose in 1970 at the age of 27.
“We would get together and do heroin in these people’s rooms and just kind of, not nod off or go to sleep, but have really nice, mellow conversations,” Joplin’s bandmate Sam Andrew said in the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue.
Photo : Bill Spilka/Getty Images.
Billie Holiday
Substance abuse cost Billie Holiday her successful jazz career and, ultimately, her life. The singer developed an addiction to alcohol and heroin after her mother died in 1945. She remained addicted for the rest of her life and died of alcohol and drug-related complications in 1959.
“Faults? Well, of course she drank too much,” her pianist Mal Waldron said. “She wouldn’t stop drinking and she never did really stick the dope habit. But Lady Day had an awful lot to forget.”
Photo : David Livingston/Getty Images.
Jodie Sweetin
Full House and Fuller House star Jodie Sweetin calls her life “amazing” after overcoming an addiction to meth.
“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,” she said. “It’s a story with a message of second chances and turning things around and being able to overcome some adversity.”
Photo : Brian To/WENN.
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy admitted in a 2001 behind-the-scenes DVD that he had become an alcoholic while working on Star Trek and ended up in rehab in the late ’80s.
“The minute we finished the last shot I would have a drink. Then it became a series of drinks, little by little. Before I knew it I was drinking more and more because my addictive personality was taking over,” he told The Telegraph in 2001.
Photo : Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Kali Uchis
Singer Kali Uchis announced her sobriety to fans on Feb 27. In the candid tweet, she wrote, “I been sober 10 months, I was drinking & smoking since 12 years old even got alcohol poisoning & almost died at 17 so it’s big for me, thank you.”
Photo : Lisa O’Connor for Variety.
Brad Pitt
In 2016, Pitt split with Angelina Jolie, going down in a blaze with a reported fight on a private plane about Pitt’s drinking. After that, Pitt had enough. As he put it, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.” The breakup marked the beginning of Pitt’s time in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Pitt detailed his experience with AA with a touch of wonder. “You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” he said. “It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.”
Source: https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/slideshow/2837/celebrities-who-have-struggled-with-drug-and-alcohol-addictions/57/