20 Celebrities Who Were Forced To Quit Drinking
Alcohol use disorders, or AUDs, affected 16.3 million adults in the United States in 2014, reports the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and only about 1.5 million of them received treatment at a specialized facility. That same year, the problem affected over half a million adolescents ages 12-17, only 55,000 of which received proper treatment.
Sobriety from drugs and alcohol is one of the most intentional decisions a person can make, but it is also one of the most difficult. There are, however, some folks who choose to never start in the first place and we applaud them for making the choice early on. However, there are others who were able to successfully kick their addiction after years of battling it.
Below we have a list of celebrities, whose lives have been open to public scrutiny, who choose to stay away from drugs and alcohol today. On this list, there are two women from Sex and the City, one wizard graduate, and several artists. See what they have to say of their big decisions.
#1 Tobey Maguire
Best known for his role in Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire has been sober since the age of 19. He struggled with substance abuse in his teens, but kicked the habit early. It wasn't a big revelation, as some media sources have reported.
#2 Jennifer Lopez
The actress-songstress may sip alcohol from time to time, but stays away otherwise.
"I think that ruins your skin," she said in an interview with InStyle.
#3 Colin Farrell
Colin Farrell got sober about a decade ago and admitted that it was "really lovely to be present in [his] life."
In 2014, he told Elle that he made love with a woman when he got clean, describing it as "one of the most terrifying moments of [his] life."
"It was in the afternoon. The windows and the curtains were open. It was lovely, and, to be crass, it wasn't fucking," he said.
"She was very gentle. But it was terrifying. Because I was just used to drunkenness and dark rooms and clubs and toilets and wherever."
#4 Jada Pinkett Smith
This supermom and superwife also beat the habit more than eight years ago. She knew she had a problem when she found herself drinking about two bottles of wine on the couch. She went cold turkey and hasn't had a drink since.
#5 Blake Lively
This golden haired actress glows as a new mother. A few years ago, she told Allure that she doesn't drink and that she's never tried a drug.
"It's just something that I genuinely don't have a desire for," Lively revealed.
#6 Kristin Davis
Famous for her role as Charlotte on Sex and the City, Kristin Davis decided to go sober at the age of 22. She realized that drinking interfered with her acting inspirations. We think that this decision, and of course a lot of hard work, moved her in the right direction.
#7 Daniel Radcliffe
Although several other reports have claimed otherwise, Daniel Radcliffe never drank on the set of Harry Potter. He did, however, struggle with drinking in his late teens and admitted in one interview that he went to work still drunk. He has since maintained his sobriety, and we're excited to see how the rest of his career pans out.
#8 Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson may have played a heroin addict in the film The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete, but this talented singer and actress has never had a drink in her life.
"I've never been interested. Nobody ever believes it," she shared on Chelsea Lately in October 2013.
#9 Naomi Campbell
It's hard to believe that this gorgeous English model struggled with substance abuse, but Naomi Campbell told Vogue that "the time between 1998 and 2005 was especially bad."
She didn't like the person she was becoming and admitted to having "a lot of problems." One of them was drinking, so she decided to join Alcoholic Anonymous so that she could get sober.
#10 Lana Del Rey
The singer-songwriter was very young when she developed a drinking problem. She told the British GQ that her first love was alcohol. Not only did she drink daily, she drank alone. She's been sober for about 12 years now.
#11 Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes's toughness is no act. She went to rehab in 2008 to fight against her prescription drug addiction.
"I'm proud of people who have the determination and the fearlessness to actually go and face their demons and get better. This is a life or death situation," she said in an interview.
#12 Kelly Osbourne
Kelly Osbourne has lived a very public life from a very young age and was in and out of rehab for her drug abuse.
She told Anderson Cooper that she got to a point where she "prayed for death." She knew she'd hit rock bottom and made the decision to get clean.
#13 Kim Cattrall
We said we had two SATC women on here. The first was Davis and now, we spotlight Kim Cattrall, who plays the seductive Samantha Jones. Cattrall said that drinking didn't only give her headaches, it was "counterproductive."
#14 Matthew Perry
Perry was only 24 years old when he landed the role as Chandler Bing on Friends, and in the late '90s he entered rehab for an addiction to Vicodin. He credits Phoenix House for their work and is proud of the fact that he can help others get clean too.
#15 Keith Urban
In 2010, Keith Urban told Ellen DeGeneres that when it came to his substance abuse, he was "in such a state of denial."
His road to recovery wasn't easy, he has been to rehab at least three times (he was admitted after three months of marriage to Nicole Kidman), but he's happy about where he is today.
#16 Eminem
There are reputations to uphold as a rapper in the industry, but Eminem took control of his own life and got sober after years of addiction to both drugs and alcohol.
#17 Kat Von D
In 2013, the talented tattoo artist tweeted "Today, marks my 6th year of sobriety! Yay for not being a drunken a**hole!! :)"
#18 Robert Downey Jr.
He may have a reputation as a bad boy, but he's worked on graduating from it and onto more important things, like being a father.
In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2014, he advised others, "Job one is get out of that cave. A lot of people do get out but don't change. So the thing is to get out and recognize the significance of that aggressive denial of your fate, come through the crucible forged into a stronger metal. Or whatever."
"But I don't even know if that was my experience," he admitted.
"It's funny: five years ago, I would've made it sound like I'm conscious of my own participation in seizing the similarities. But so many things have become less certain. I swear to God. I am not my story."
#19 Bradley Cooper
"If I continued it, I was really going to sabotage my whole life," Bradley Cooper told GQ in 2014. He became sober, free of drug and alcohol abuse, at the age of 29.
#20 Daisy Lowe
This 27-year-old English fashion model followed after her mother Pearl as a "soberista." Proves that you don't have to be a party girl to be the latest "It" girl.
