There are many reasons to go sober. Consuming too much alcohol can affect your ability to work, it can affect your health and it can affect your looks. And for many famous celebrities working in the entertainment industry, that’s a risk they’re not willing to take. It’s why we’re seeing more and more sober celebrities who are teetotal, and who are happy to share their sober journey and support their famous friends to do the same.
These are a few of our favourite famous sober people who have stopped drinking and have now embraced a teetotal lifestyle.
Bradley Cooper
Actor Bradley Cooper is well-known for his starring turn in The Hangover movie back in 2009 and more recently playing the role of an alcoholic in the award-winning A Star is Born. But in real life Cooper is one of Hollywood’s most famous sober people having stopped drinking at the age of 29. Prior to that Cooper struggled with alcohol and painkiller addiction before going teetotal 20 years ago when he realised how much alcohol was affecting his acting performances. “I was lucky. I got sober at 29 years old,” he said in an interview with The Independent in 2023, while he told Hollywood Reporter, “I realised I wasn’t going to live up to my potential, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m actually gonna ruin my life. I’m really gonna ruin it.’” Well done to Cooper for being one of the film industry’s most successful clean and sober celebrities.
Kristin Davis
We know her as the Cosmo-sipping Charlotte in TV’s Sex and the City, but actress Kristin Davis has been sober since the age of 22. Describing herself as a recovering alcoholic, she is as quoted as saying that before becoming sober she didn’t think she’d live past the age of 30. Now 59 years old, Davis said in a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph, that her constant drinking was enough of a problem for her to think, “this is something that could get in the way of what I want to do in life.” She explains that she was hungover and not doing well in her acting classes and thought “do you know what? It’s going to be one or the other. I can’t really have both.” While in an interview with The Fix, she reports that “acting is the only thing that made me want to ever get sober.” And as for all those Cosmos on set: “I never drink them!”
Kate Moss
When you think of sober female celebrities, Brit supermodel Kate Moss isn’t a name that immediately springs to mind. Famous for her membership of the hedonistic Primrose Hill Set in the early noughties, Mossy lives an altogether more sober and healthy lifestyle these days. She has been teetotal since 2018 according to her fellow sober celebrity friend DJ Fat Tony, who is reported as saying that he and Moss have a much better time now than when they used to drink. At her 50th birthday party earlier in 2024, the original 90s party girl reportedly jetted off to Mustique with a group of friends to enjoy an alcohol-free celebration. Happy Birthday Kate!
Elton John
In the 1970s, singer songwriter Elton John was as known as much for his struggles with alcoholism, drug use and eating disorders as he was for his energetic shows, outlandish outfits and incredible songs. That all changed in 1990 when decided to get clean and sober. In an interview with Variety Magazine back in 2019, John describes being at his lowest ebb before he sought help with his drinking. “I hated myself so much. I was consumed with shame. All I wanted to do was get well. I put all of the energy I had left toward my recovery. For the first time in a very long time, I listened to others intently as I came to understand that I had so much to learn.” In 2020, after 30 years of sobriety, John tweeted “thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the people who have inspired and supported me along the way.”
Anne Hathaway
Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway is another of those female sober celebrities who feels so much better for becoming teetotal. In an interview with The New York Times in April 2024, Hathaway confirmed that she was five years sober, while in a Vanity Fair interview the month before she said she had stopped drinking alcohol because it just wasn’t for her. “If you’re allergic to something or have an anaphylactic reaction to something, you don’t argue with it. So I stopped arguing with it,” she said. “My personal experience with it is that everything is better. For me, it was wallowing fuel. And I don’t like to wallow,” she added.
Robert Downey Jr.
If there was a poster boy for famous sober people whose lives have turned around once they stopped drinking, it would have to be Oscar-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. In the 1990s Downey was notorious for his hard drinking and substance abuse and was in and out of prison and rehab. In 2003 he made the decision to go sober and sought help via a court ordered drug treatment programme. With the help of his family and the support of other Hollywood stars like Mel Gibson, as well as therapy and meditation, Downey has overcome his addictions and has said in interviews that the strongest thing he consumes now are espressos.
Daniel Radcliffe
Harry Potter alumni Daniel Radcliffe has been sober since 2013 having admitted to becoming a heavy drinker as the beloved film series was wrapping. During an interview for Desert Island Discs on Radio 4, Radcliffe said, “A lot of drinking that happened toward the end of Potter and for a little bit after it finished, it was panic, a little bit not knowing what to do next—not being comfortable enough in who I was to remain sober.” Having previously stopped drinking in 2010, Radcliffe admitted he had attempted to stop drinking multiple times, and eventually did so with the support of his friends. He confirmed he stopped drinking to focus on his career and said in an interview, “Ultimately, it was my own decision. I woke up one morning after a night [out] going like, ‘this is probably not good.’”
Tom Holland
Another child star turned accomplished actor, and best known for his role in the Spider-Man movies, is Tom Holland who joins a growing band of sober UK celebrities. Holland has talked at length about his sobriety. As The Guardian news reported in July 2023, Holland opened up about his drinking on a podcast and claimed that becoming sober was “the best thing I’ve ever done”. He said that he’d had a boozy Christmas in 2021, had vowed to have a dry January in 2022 but had spent the entire month thinking about having a drink. He said, “I just sort of said to myself, like, ‘Why? Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’” But by the summer of 2022, Holland had been sober for five months and declared he was “the happiest I’ve ever been in my life,” saying he felt healthier and fitter. Today, the actor has been sober for nearly three years. “I can’t believe the difference that I feel from not drinking. Yeah, I feel amazing.”
Brad Pitt
Like most teetotal celebrities, acting superstar Brad Pitt has had his issues with alcohol over the years but has now been sober for eight years. In an interview with GQ Style magazine in 2017, Pitt admitted to going sober the year before, simply explaining that “I didn’t want to live that way any more.” In a later interview in The New York Times in September 2019, Pitt revealed, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges,” adding that the experience of therapy was extremely valuable. “It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself.” Another teetotal celebrity is also credited with helping Pitt get sober, and that’s none other than Bradley Cooper. When Pitt accepted his award at the 2020 National Board of Review Awards he thanked Cooper and said, “I got sober because of this guy, and every day has been happier ever since.”
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