On Again, Off Again
There are lots of famous people who are on the wagon again and then off it. You may be surprised to uncover which stars have managed to get sober and stay that way.
Who’s On The Wagon?
Is your favorite Netflix star a recovering alcoholic? Did your showbiz hero give up the drink for good? Here are seven famous folks whose experiences with drinking may astound you.
Kelly Osbourne
Kelly Osbourne’s first appearance on TV was on the reality show about her family called The Osbournes. After this, she earned her own fame through roles in various programs. You may have seen her on Fashion Police, Australia’s Got Talent, and Dancing with the Stars.
Kelly Osbourne
Like father like daughter? Osbourne’s father, Ozzy Osbourne, was the lead singer for Black Sabbath. He struggled through years of substance addiction. He is reported to have said that he “should have died before loads of his rocker friends”, and asked “Why am I the last man standing?”
Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Kelly Osbourne
Osbourne followed in the footsteps of her father. She experimented with pills and booze before she was even a teenager.
Kelly Osbourne
Osbourne got sick of feeling like she could do nothing without her addictions. She hit a ‘spiritual low’ and decided to make the tough choice to give them up. She changed her life.
Kelly Osbourne
For six years, Kelly Osbourne refused to drink. In 2021, during the Covid pandemic, she unfortunately had a relapse. It filled her with deep shame. She noted on Instagram, “Not proud of it. But I am back on track”.
Tom Holland
Tom Holland is best known for his starring role in Marvel’s Spider-Man. You may also recognize him from his parts in The Crowded Room and Dolittle. But he’s notorious for something else as well.
Tom Holland
Popular pastimes for Tom included pub-hopping and drinking with rugby buddies. Socializing and drinking went hand in hand with him. But his relationship with booze scared him.
Tom Holland
All he could think about was having a drink. He finally asked himself, “‘Why? Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’”
Tom Holland
In 2022, he embraced “Dry January” and gave up liquor. He sleeps better and the 28-year-old claims he is the happiest he has ever been.
Michael Potts F1, Shutterstock
Demi Lovato
Today, Demi Lovato is known as a singer and songwriter. She has 53 singles and 2 soundtrack albums. As a child, she acted, and made her TV debut in the kids’ show Barney & Friends.
Demi Lovato
Lovato’s drinking began young. As a teenager, Lovato admits to using substances to numb her pain. In 2012, she confessed to Seventeen magazine, "I'm not gonna lie. I was self-medicating". She would hide her drinks and substances—but how did she get away with it?
Demi Lovato
She snuck substances onto airplanes. “I’d sneak into the bathroom, and I’d do it,” she explained about her use of ‘nose candy’. Vodka was concealed in Sprite bottles. She realized she had a problem.
Demi Lovato
Her issue became clear to her at 19 years of age. She relayed this to Access Magazine: “I had a moment where I was like, ‘Oh my God…that is alcoholic behavior. [It’s] no longer, I’m young and rebellious and out having fun, it was, wow, I’m one of those people … I gotta get my s—t together".
Demi Lovato
In 2013, she admitted herself to a sober house. Like Kelly Osbourne, Lovato also experienced six years of sobriety. However, in 2018, she almost lost her life to an overdose.
Demi Lovato
Thankfully, Lovato’s excessive and dangerous use of substances was caught in time. She spent two weeks in the hospital and three months in rehab. As a result of her OD, Lovato suffered three strokes and a heart attack. She was also left with permanent brain damage.
Demi Lovato
Since 2018, Demi Lovato has been on the wagon. She’s been a huge advocate for mental health support and treatment of addictions.
Daniel Radcliffe
You know him as Harry Potter. He’s also been on Broadway and, more recently, played Weird Al Yankovic in the film of the same name. Yet despite his clean image, Radcliffe hid a dark secret—and few people knew that secret was affecting his acting abilities.
Daniel Radcliffe
The pressure of fame was having more of an impact on Radcliffe than anyone could see. He wanted to remain “relevant and in the public eye”, but this cost him a lot emotionally. So, he found a way to cope.
Daniel Radcliffe
Radcliffe loved his booze. It was several years before his secret became public. Although often hungover for interviews, fellow actors simply thought he drank to excess on occasions like his birthday. They didn’t realize the extent of his problem.
Daniel Radcliffe
He eventually did, though: “I woke up one morning after a night going like, ‘This is probably not good,’” he told Off Camera during an interview. In 2010, he quit drinking. Except for experiencing one relapse in 2012, he has been sober.
Matteo Chinellato, Shutterstock
Adele
Like Madonna and Prince, this star is so famous she needs only one name! Adele—born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins—came onto the music scene in 2008 with her first album, 19.
Vytautas Kielaitis, Shutterstock
Adele
Adele’s dad left when she was only three years old, and she was tormented throughout her elementary and high school years for being overweight. What did she turn to after being cheated on by her first boyfriend?
Adele
Substances became a solution to ease her pain. Like Demi Lovato and Kelly Osbourne, Adele’s fondness for drinking began at a young age. When she started dating Simon Konecki, whom she eventually married, her excessive drinking took a bit of a pause. But then…
Adele
The couple broke up in 2019. She told Oprah that at first, after her divorce from Simon Konecki, “I was probably keeping the alcohol industry alive”.
Adele
Despite her semi-sarcastic comments to Oprah, Adele realized she had a problem. She claims she was “borderline” and explained in her 2021 Oprah interview, “Once I realized that I had a lot of work to do on myself, I stopped drinking”.
Adele
Adele’s solution to drinking was “simple”: She quit cold turkey. But she hasn’t forgotten how much she enjoyed booze. “I miss it so much... So enjoy your whiskey sour. I’m very, very jealous.”
Robst56, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Liam Payne
The band One Direction was a boy band with a huge following from 2010–2016. By this time, they had raked in $110 million as a band and were considered teen idols. It’s no wonder that one of the band members, Liam Payne, had some major struggles.
Liam Payne
Payne affirmed that tours were fun but added that they “just got a little bit toxic”. Like Daniel Radcliffe, Payne hid his mental health issues and addictions. But it soon became too much for him. He hit rock bottom.
Liam Payne
Payne understood that: "I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn't really recognize anymore”. In 2023, he checked himself into rehab.
Liam Payne
What does he think about being sober? He informed iFL TV that, “I feel amazing…I feel really, really good, and support from the fans and everything has been really, really good. So, I'm super happy."
Drew Barrymore
We all remember the charming and cute little sister, Gretchen, in the movie ET. This wasn’t Barrymore’s first acting gig—although it may be her most famous. Her first role was in Ken Rusell’s movie Altered States, when she was only five years old.
Drew Barrymore
Barrymore’s father had a long and complicated relationship with spirits. He was also known to be aggressive when drinking. Would she follow in his footsteps?
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore was really young when she started drinking—she was only nine years old! She claims she was smoking marijuana and using substances by age 12. Barrymore’s parents dumped her into rehab when she was only 13 years old.
Featureflash Photo Agency, Shutterstock
Drew Barrymore
Despite her issues with substances, Barrymore tried to convince herself she was in control. She repeatedly told herself, "I’ll master this. I’ll figure it out". Like Adele, however, Barrymore hit the bottle hard after her divorce from actor Will Kopelman in 2016.
Drew Barrymore
After realizing she needed to abstain, Barrymore gave up drinking in 2019. She claims it’s been "one of the most liberating things in my journey of life".
On The Wagon And Staying There
Like us everyday Joe Schmoes, some famous people also have problems with booze. Some stars drink themselves to oblivion. Some don’t. And some have given up their wild days of intoxication.
Kelly Osbourne, Tom Holland, Demi Lovato, Adele, Daniel Radcliffe, Liam Payne, and Drew Barrymore have had a turbulent relationship with drinking. But, like many other famous people, they’ve managed to get on the wagon—and stay there.
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