Brad Pitt, Drew Barrymore, Gisele Bündchen get candid about sobriety: 'One of the most liberating things'

Some of Hollywood's top stars are opening up about their sobriety journey.

During a recent panel appearance, Gisele Bündchen got honest with the crowd about her relationship with alcohol, and how much better she feels since getting sober.

Drew Barrymore and Brad Pitt are some of the many others who have spoken about how sobriety has changed their lives for the better.

Here are some celebrities who have shared their experiences. 

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Gisele Bündchen

While appearing on a panel celebrating her partnership with the supplement brand Gaia Herbs, supermodel Gisele Bündchen revealed she has been sober for two years. She told the crowd that "it’s amazing how much more clear" she feels since giving up alcohol, as well as cigarettes and coffee. 

"I had to replace all those habits that were killing me for habits that were giving me a new life," she said during the panel appearance. "Instead of waking up with two cigarettes and a mocha frappuccino with whipped cream, I would wake up and go for a jog and come back and do an hour of breath work and yoga. Everything changed."

Elle Macpherson

Supermodel Elle Macpherson recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of her sobriety. When speaking with Australian magazine Body + Soul in November, Macpherson opened up about deciding to get sober in 2003, saying "it was a wonderful springboard of getting to know myself on a deeper level."

She went on to say it's a decision she has never looked back on with regret.

"Although it required discipline and persistence, the bottom line is you can’t be well and present in your life if you’re not present and well, and alcohol doesn’t really support that. It’s very difficult to get to know yourself if you’re numbing yourself."

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Margaret Cho

Comedian Margaret Cho opened up about reaching seven years of sobriety during a recent appearance on "The Osbournes." She told Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne, "Hopefully this time around it’ll stick," because "I’ve spent a lot of time on it this time."

"I didn’t really get it the last time around, but it’s also a constantly evolving project, you know, your mental health and your well-being," she said. "It’s an ongoing piece of art you have to keep applying yourself to."  

She explained she has been struggling with her sobriety since 1996, saying she used to take drugs, "in order to be social." They may have helped her be more comfortable in social situations, however she revealed they also made her angry "because I would get that opioids rage." 

Hank Azaria

Hank Azaria paid tribute to his longtime friend Matthew Perry in an Instagram video when he passed away in late October, opening up about his journey to sobriety in the process. 

"I'm a sober guy for 17 years, and I wanna say that, the night I went into AA [Alcoholics Anonymous], Matthew brought me in," Azaria said. "The whole first year I was sober, we went to meetings together. He was so caring and giving. He totally helped me get sober. And I really wish he could've found it in himself to stay with the silver life more consistently."

The actor went further into detail in an essay for The New York Times, explaining he couldn't imagine how being there was "going to make you want to stop drinking," and how Perry guided him through the process through humor. He recalled Perry jokingly telling him at his first AA meeting, "It’s something, isn’t it? God is a bunch of drunks together in a room."

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Ben Affleck

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in March 2023, Ben Affleck revealed his confusion over people accusing him of being drunk while accompanying his wife, Jennifer Lopez, at the Grammys. He told the outlet, "I’ve gone to award shows and been drunk, a bunch," but "nobody ever once said I’m drunk."

"I thought, that’s interesting," he explained. "That raises a whole other thing about whether or not it’s wise to acknowledge addiction because there’s a lot of compassion, but there is still a tremendous stigma, which is often quite inhibiting. I do think it disincentivizes people from making their lives better."

Affleck first sought treatment in 2001, and has struggled to stay sober throughout the years, with multiple stints in rehab. He also spoke about going through his struggles with sobriety in the public eye, explaining "I became – out of no desire of my own – one of the poster boys for actor alcoholism," and while he enjoys being able to help people, he says he would advise other actors to go through it privately.

"Often what I’ll say to people is, I would avoid [your addiction] coming out if I were you," he said. "You don’t need to be anybody’s poster child. You don’t need to f---ing tell anybody. That’s why there’s two words on the front of the book. They’re just as important, both of them: Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s always anonymous."

Tom Holland

During an interview on the "On Purpose with Jay Shetty" podcast in July 2023, Tom Holland explained his decision to quit drinking, telling Jay Shetty "I didn't one day wake up and say, 'I'm giving up drinking.'" He went on to say he decided that after "a very, very boozy December," he wouldn't drink in January, but after realizing "all [he] could think about was having a drink," then he got scared and wanted to change his life.

"If I can do two months off, then I can prove to myself that I don't have a problem," he told himself at the time. "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 maybe I had an alcohol problem."

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He then decided to go six months without a drink in order to "prove to [him]self that [he doesn't] have a problem," saying, "by the time I had got to June 1, I was the happiest I've ever been in my life." The "Spider-Man: No Way Home" actor said he noticed he was sleeping better, and wasn't as irritable, explaining, "I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter." He has since stayed sober.

Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson took to Instagram to commemorate six years of sobriety. She shared a photo of her at the start of her journey, calling the person in the photo "an unrecognizable version of myself," adding, "I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self respect."

"There is so much stigma around the word alcoholism or the label of an alcoholic. The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage," she wrote. "The drinking wasn’t the issue. I was. I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do. I have made nice with the fears and I have accepted the parts of my life that are just sad. I own my personal power with soulful courage. I am wildly honest and comfortably open. I am free."

She first opened up about her sobriety in her 2020 memoir, "Open Book," in which she explained she decided to get sober after getting drunk on Halloween and being unable to dress her kids. 

Lucy Hale

Actress Lucy Hale opened up about her journey with alcoholism during an appearance on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast in November 2023. She detailed her first experience with alcohol at 12 years old, saying she "blacked out" and "got very sick," explaining "it was very clear I was drinking to escape something, even at a young age."

The "Pretty Little Liars" actress revealed she secretly went to rehab at 23, while still working on the show, saying she realized she had a problem when she "felt uncomfortable" hanging out with her friends when sober. Hale got sober two years ago at 32 years old, crediting the pandemic lookdown for helping her, since she was forced to stay at home and receive treatment.

"I had tried so many different things: rehab, out-patient, in-patient, trauma center, therapy, medication, you name it… Without having COVID, I might not have gotten sober or committed to it," she explained. "Being sober is 100% the best thing I've ever done for myself, but doesn't mean it's easy." 

Joe Manganiello

Over the years, Joe Manganiello has been open about his decision to get sober, telling Men's Health in 2019 that "drinking was a way for me not to have to deal with me," and revealing acting was also a way for him to escape himself.

He got sober in 2002 after his drinking got in the way of his acting, leaving him homeless and without a career. He has now been sober for 21 years.

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"When I was growing up, when I thought of an alcoholic, I thought of some toothless old guy in a trench coat in a basement somewhere," he said in a 2018 speech at the Brent Shapiro Foundation for Drug Prevention’s 13th annual Summer Spectacular Event. "I just never thought that would apply to me. That type of stigma kept me from getting the help that I needed when I knew I needed it."

Rob Lowe

In May, Rob Lowe celebrated his 33rd anniversary of getting sober, writing how "grateful" he is to have "found recovery and a tribe that has sustained" him on his journey toward recovery. "If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction: hope and joy are waiting if you want it, and are willing to work for it," he added.

Lowe previously spoke to Variety in 2021 about the origins of his addiction, explaining he began drinking when he was a teenager, with his addiction getting worse when he began acting and was introduced to drugs. He went on to get sober in 1990.

"Nothing can make you get sober except you wanting to do it," he told the outlet. "The threat of losing a marriage, losing a job, incarceration – you name the threat, it will not be enough to do it. It’s got to be in you. The reason that people don’t get sober 100% of the time when they go into programs is that people aren’t ready when they go to use the tools."

Bradley Cooper

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Bradley Cooper discussed his journey to sobriety during an appearance on an installment of "Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge" earlier this year. During the episode, he revealed he has been sober since he was 29, calling himself "lucky."

During the episode, Cooper told Bear Grylls how his previous experience struggling with addiction helped him connect with his character in "A Star is Born."

"It made it easier to be able to really enter in there," he said on the show. "And 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. 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."

Brad Pitt

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After Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016, the actor became sober. He told The New York Times in September 2019, "I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges."

During his acceptance speech at the National Board of Review Awards for his role in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," Pitt credited Bradley Cooper for helping him get sober, saying "every day has been happier ever since." In a June 2022 interview with GQ, Pitt discussed how Alcoholics Anonymous helped him.

"I had a really cool men’s group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe," he told the outlet. "Because I’d seen things of other people who had been recorded while they were spilling their guts, and that’s just atrocious to me."

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In that interview, Pitt also shared he gave up smoking cigarettes during the pandemic, saying, "I don’t have that ability to do just one or two a day." Earlier this year, Pitt launched a new gin but is reportedly still sober. 

Drew Barrymore

In a November 2022 edition of her magazine Drew, Drew Barrymore called getting sober "one of the most liberating things in my journey of life." She explained quitting drinking was a dragon in her life she had to slay and once she did it, she was able "to finally become free of the torture of guilt and dysfunction" in her life.

The actress first spoke about her sobriety during a December 2021 interview with "CBS This Morning," sharing she had been sober for two and a half years at the time. She explained her drinking became uncontrollable following her divorce from Will Kopelman, and after realizing it "did not serve [her] and [her] life" anymore, she sought help privately.  

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"I just want to figure this out and go about this with... no public [dialogue about it]. Let me do this quietly and privately. Now it's been long enough where I'm in a lifestyle that I know is really working... for my little journey. And there is so much peace finally being had where there were demons," said Barrymore.