List of A-list celebrities who explained how their lives improved after going sober
Warning: This article contains discussion of alcoholism which some readers may find distressing.
‘New year, new me’ and all of that is really at that crucial point now where people start to drop off or, people start to really hold on.
Often included in those resolutions is drink less alcohol, to have a crack at Dry January or to go fully sober for the long-run.
There’s various reasons why you might be ditching drink, with sobriety advocates recently revealing to LADbible how alcohol took away their ‘hopes and dreams’ and how sobriety had an impact on their ADHD.
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And the impact of giving up alcohol is something plenty of major A-list celebrities are pretty open about too, with Tom Holland previously opening up about the ‘scary’ realisation he had after doing Dry January.
So, here’s a look at some of the other stars who explained how their lives improved after going sober.
Tom Hardy
The Venom actor has been sober since about 2003 when he followed a 12-step program at age 25 to help his struggles with addiction.
He often speaks openly about his struggles as he regards himself as lucky for not ending up in prison or dead.
Hardy says he was ‘reborn’ following a scare that led to rehab and previously told the Daily Mirror of his old self: “If I had four pints of lager and half a bottle of vodka I could turn this room into an absolute f**king nightmare in about three minutes. I could destroy everything in my life I have worked so hard for.”
Daniel Radcliffe
Nowadays, Radcliffe ‘barely thinks’ about alcohol after a long journey to get sober.
Having achieved global stardom early in life thanks to Harry Potter, the star has opened up about alcohol abuse in his teen years before quitting in his early 20s.
"In my case, the quickest way to forget about the fact that you’re being watched is to get very drunk," he told Off Camera in 2019.
"And then as you get very drunk, you become aware that 'Oh, people are watching more now because now I’m getting very drunk, so I should probably drink more to ignore that more.'"
Nowadays, he says going sober has made him more comfortable with himself and has given him the opportunity to live ‘without dread and fear and it is lovely’.
Cara Delevingne
Like Hardy, Delevingne took on a 12-step program and became sober, leading to many realisations about herself.
She told Variety about what she’d tell someone struggling with getting sober: “You're not alone. If I can do it, anyone can. You need to communicate and be honest about it as much as you can, especially with yourself."
Delevingne added to Vogue of going sober over two years ago: “Before I was always into the quick fix of healing, going to a weeklong retreat or to a course for trauma, say, and that helped for a minute, but it didn’t ever really get to the nitty-gritty, the deeper stuff.
"This time I realised that 12-step treatment was the best thing, and it was about not being ashamed of that. The community made a huge difference. The opposite of addiction is connection, and I really found that in 12-step.”
Samuel L Jackson
The Marvel star has been sober now since 1991 when his wife and eight-year-old daughter found him on the floor of the kitchen, after nearly 20 years of drug and alcohol abuse.
Jackson has openly discussed how he believes sobriety has made him a better actor as he added to I Am Sober: “So my success directly correlates to me getting straight and me getting in touch with who I am and understanding what my talents were and how to tap into them in a positive way and not that negative way that I used to.”
Bradley Cooper
Cooper told GQ in 2013 that if he continued with alcohol then he was ‘really going to sabotage my whole life’.
After struggles with addiction, the actor says he has ‘been very lucky’ to have been sober for two decades. During an appearance on Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes’ Smartless podcast in 2022, the star explained that during his addiction he had ‘zero self-esteem’ and felt ‘worthless’.
Zac Efron
The High School Musical actor went into rehab in 2013 for treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
In 2014, he opened up about Alcoholics Anonymous having ‘changed his life’ and making him ‘much more comfortable’ in his own skin’.
He also told Elle how sobriety had helped change his life for better: “What I found is structure. That led me to a balance of opposites: You get out of life what you put in.”
Anne Hathaway
The actor reached five years of sobriety last spring which she described as a ‘milestone’.
But Hathaway did previously reveal that giving up alcohol wasn’t down to a problem but because the hangovers were.
She said to Modern Luxury: “My last hangover lasted for five days. 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.”
Bella Hadid
The model went sober in 2022 and previously told In Style that she loved alcohol to the point where she would ‘cancel nights out that I felt like I wouldn’t be able to control myself’ on.
With a doctor also giving her scans that found alcohol impacted her brain, she added: “There's just this never-ending effect of, essentially, you know, pain and stress over those few drinks that didn't really do much, you know?”
Dry January is a campaign developed by Alcohol Change UK, you can find support and resources for taking part here.
Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support.
Topics: Mental Health, Alcohol, Dry January, Celebrity
Jess Battison