Brad Pitt reveals he is no longer sober after 7 years without alcohol
Warning: This article contains discussion of alcoholism which some readers may find distressing.
Brad Pitt has pressed pause on his sober lifestyle for the foreseeable future, claiming he’s now able to consume alcohol in a ‘restrained manner’.
Despite the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, myriad celebrities have opted out of guzzling champagne at wrap parties and said no to hoarding bottles of booze in their homes.
Sir Anthony Hopkins has abstained from drinking for almost half a century; Avengers: Doomsday star Robert Downey Jr. has been candid about alcohol abuse in the past, as have Zac Efron and Drew Barrymore, among others.
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Pitt, 62, counted himself among this cohort until very recently.
Following his divorce from his second wife, Angelina Jolie, in 2016, he appeared on stage at the National Board of Review Awards Gala to personally credit Bradley Cooper as a sober catalyst.
“I got sober because of this guy and every day has been happier ever since,” he said whilst Cooper - sober since 2004 - handed him the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2020.
Brad Pitt is no longer sober
However, when questioned in June 2026 if he was drinking again, Pitt told Esquire: “No, I got—I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon.”
In the article titled ‘A Monday with Brad Pitt’, the Fight Club actor revealed that he could now drink in a ‘restrained manner’ - but it hadn’t all been plain sailing.
“I got overconfident a couple times, went, Yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities.”
The F1 actor, who is credited as an executive producer on the upcoming slasher flick, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, confessed that he cannot have ‘a lot’ of alcohol at one time.
Instead, he tries to remain ‘professional’ about his habit.
What Brad Pitt has said about sobriety in the past
Back in 2019, the two-time Oscar winner painted an intimate portrait of the 1.5 years he spent in a 12-step program after his split from Eternals actress Jolie.
“You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself,” he recounted to The New York Times.
“It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself. “There’s great value in that.”
Pitt also once claimed in an interview with GQ that he couldn’t remember ‘a day’ after leaving college when he ‘wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something’.
He was six months sober at the time, leading him to claim: “I’m really happy it’s been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again.”
The Babylon favourite is set to return to the big screen this autumn with the release of Heart of the Beast, an American survival thriller directed by David Ayer.
Pitt will appear as Special Forces officer James Belmont beside J. K. Simmons and Anna Lambe. The film is slated for release on 25 September.
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.
If you've been affected by addiction and want to speak to someone in confidence, you can call American Addiction Centers on (888) 324-0595, available 24/7, or contact them through their website.
Sober celebrities
Tom Holland
Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s leading man has been open and honest about his root to sobriety.
"I didn't one day wake up and say, 'I'm giving up drinking.' I just - like many Brits - had had a very boozy December. Christmas time, I was on vacation, I was drinking a lot,” the 30-year-old told Jay Shetty on his On Purpose podcast.
As a result, he embarked on a ‘Dry January’ challenge—and he’s not looked back since.
“I could sleep better, I could handle problems better - things that would go wrong on set that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride,” The Odyssey star said.
Anne Hathaway
It’s been more than seven years since actress Anne Hathaway opted to quit drinking.
She vowed to cut out alcohol when her ten-year-old son Jonathan was just a toddler.
“I'm going to stop drinking while my son's living in my house just because I don't totally love the way I do it, and he's getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the morning,” she said during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
She added that she experienced a hangover while dropping her child off at school: "That was enough for me. I didn't love that one.”
Daniel Radcliffe
Broadway darling and Harry Potter alumnus Daniel Radcliffe decided in the early 2010s that enough was enough; his alcohol dependence needed to come to an end.
Having used booze to cope with the intense anxiety and pressure of global stardom for years, the 37-year-old claimed it took a ‘couple of attempts’ before he was able to kick the habit for good.
“As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time - that doesn't work for me,” he said, as per I Am Sober.
“I do that very unsuccessfully. I'd just rather sit at home and read, or go out to dinner with someone, or talk to someone I love, or talk to somebody that makes me laugh.”
Mary J. Blige
‘Family Affair’ singer Mary J. Blige once admitted she was ‘dying’ after going cold turkey on feeding her alcohol and drug addictions.
“I just — it was either put up or shut up. It was two choices. It was: You want to live or you want to die?” she said, as reported by Vice.
“And so I prayed and I was like, ‘Lord, you’ve got to help me, you’ve got to send me someone that’s going to help me or send me a friend or something’.”
Her saving grace was apparenly her husband at the time, Kendu Issacs.
“And here he comes. And he just started questioning me and challenging me and not being afraid to go against me in a positive way up against that negative stuff.”
Ella Scott