Brad Pitt has been sober for seven years after decades of drinking. However, now, he has decided to break his sobriety, and the reason behind it.
Brad Pitt has been very open about both his struggles with alcohol, including turning to AA, as well as shining a light on his sobriety.
The Hollywood superstar told GQ in 2017 that he had a hard time remembering one day since he left college, that he hadn’t had a drink or smoked pot. However, in 2019, enough was enough. Pitt decided to quit drinking completely.
In 2019, he told The New York Times that he had spent 18 months in an all-male support group. For Brad Pitt, the group helped him a lot, especially in the early days of his sobriety.
“It was when I first was getting sober,” Pitt said on the podcast Armchair Expert in 2025. “It was just incredible. Men sharing their experiences, their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches and a lot of humor with it.”
Pitt admitted that talking about his experiences was difficult at first. But over time, he slowly found the courage to open up and share what he had been through.
Brad Pitt reveals why he gave up sobriety after 7 years without alcohol
“I was pretty much on my knees, and I was really open,” he explained. “I was trying anything, anything anyone threw at me. It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting.”
The movie star added, “And it just meant a lot to me. Everyone was so open.”
In 2020, during the Academy Awards, Brad Pitt thanked one person in particular who helped him get sober: Bradley Cooper.
“I got sober because of this guy. And every day’s been happier ever since,” he said from the stage.
Now, Brad Pitt has decided to break his sobriety. In a new interview with Esquire, he explained that he is trying to drink in a much more “restrained manner,” adding that he has learned his limits when it comes to alcohol.
“Back off the wagon”
“I got overconfident a couple times, went, ‘Yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities,’” Brad Pitt said. “I can have a few, but I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.”
“I was sober for seven years,” he added. “And then I got back off the wagon.”
The 62-year-old mentioned one of his friends who has been very helpful in navigating what ‘balanced drinking’ is
“And she said, ‘Yeah, you could do that. You could go to an ashram and be more even’,” he said. “But, she goes, ‘I don’t know, I believe in the human experience, and the human experience means I’m here to feel it all. Feel it all. The extreme highs and the depths of the soul-crushing lows’.”
READ MORE
- Anne Hathaway shuts down critics after ‘fake’ baby bump photos go viral
- Angelina Jolie’s brother reveals his biggest secret on ex-wife’s livestream
