- Some celebrities are open about their sobriety.
- For some stars, abstaining from alcohol and drugs comes after overcoming addiction.
- Bradley Cooper, Tom Holland, Jessica Simpson, and more stars have spoken about their sobriety.
Some celebrities are open about personal hardships, like efforts to abstain from alcohol and drugs.
Actors like Jamie Lee Curtis, Bradley Cooper, and Anthony Hopkins have been sober for over a decade, while stars like Tom Holland and Lucy Hale have been candid about embarking on their sobriety journeys in recent years. Others, including Dax Shepard and Kelly Osbourne, have been honest about the challenges of maintaining their sober lifestyle.
Here are 40 celebrities who have spoken about their sobriety.
Anjelica Oswald contributed to a previous version of this article.
Cooper has been sober since he was 29. He told GQ in 2013 that he got sober because he realized that “if I continued it, I was really going to sabotage my whole life.”
Cooper played a musician struggling with addiction in 2018’s “A Star Is Born,” which he also directed. He told Variety that it was a “cathartic” experience.
“Anytime you’re trying to tell the truth you need to go to places and use things that have happened to you, or you’ve read about or experienced,” he said. “And that’s all part of the beauty of turning whatever things you’ve gone through into a story. I find that to be very cathartic.”
During an appearance on a 2023 episode of “Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge,” Cooper said that he was “very lucky” to overcome his addictions.
Cooper also said he was grateful to be sober when he played Jackson Maine in “A Star Is Born.”
“Thank goodness I was at a place in my life where I was at ease with all of that, so I could really let myself go,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky with the roles I’ve had to play. It’s been a real blessing. I hope I get to keep doing it.”
Holland spoke about his decision to become sober during an appearance on the podcast “On Purpose With Jay Shetty,” released in July 2023.
After having a “very boozy December,” the British actor chose to participate in Dry January. During that time, Holland found that he kept thinking about drinking, “and it just really scared me,” to the point that he realized he has a dependency.
Holland said he was “definitely addicted to alcohol” and didn’t know how to navigate social settings without drinking.
“I was really, really struggling and I started to really worry that maybe I had an alcohol problem. So I decided that I would wait until my birthday, which is June 1,” the actor said. “I said to myself, ‘If I can do six months without alcohol, then I can prove to myself that I don’t have a problem.’ And by the time I got to June 1, I was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”
“It’s honestly been the best thing I’ve ever done,” Holland added. “I’m a year and a half into it now. It doesn’t even cross my mind. I’ve found amazing replacements that I think are fantastic, ones that are also really healthy.”
Holland’s sobriety also led him to launch Bero, a premium non-alcoholic beer brand in 2024.
“12 and a half years ago I was in active addiction,” the “Stranger Things” star wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in July 2022. “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. 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,” he continued. “For anyone who wakes up thinking ‘oh god not again’ I promise you there’s a way.”
“I’m so grateful to be where I am, I’m so grateful to be sober,” he said. “I’m so grateful to be. Remember, we are all works in progress.”
Simpson celebrated seven years of sobriety in November.
“I was at a place where I was literally spiraling with the alcohol and I was missing out on moments with my children, and then they were seeing me and they were very confused,” Simpson said during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in 2020.
“I just wanted to be present and have clarity and be a good role model for my children, because I always wanted to be a good role model for the world, so why in the world would I be stuck in this cycle of having to wake up and have a drink before going to one of their school assemblies?” she continued.
“It got to the point where all of my life has escalated and I couldn’t suppress it,” Simpson said. “And alcohol, it wasn’t working. It was making me completely check out.”
The star said that when she stopped drinking, she had “so much clarity.”