Aussie and Hollywood stars who’ve dropped the drink
Many Gen-Zers are steering clear of alcohol and other drugs but many in the celebrity world chose the clean path well before. Here’s a look at the biggest names leading the sober trend.
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In a growing trend, actors, pop stars, and performers are prioritising their mental and physical health, steering clear of the substance abuse of previous eras.
Alcohol abuse in particular has fuelled a “sober curious” movement, popular among Gen Z stars who promote their booze-free lifestyles and inspire friends and fans with their sobriety.
Some of Hollywood and Australia’s biggest names have jumped on the sober trend, espousing the multiple and life-changing benefits of ditching the booze.
Superstar Miley Cyrus said the deaths of Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain, who all died at the age of 27, inspired her to get sober.
“Twenty-seven to me was a year that I really had to protect myself. That actually really made me want to get sober, because we’ve lost so many icons at 27,” she has previously said.
“It’s a very pivotal time. You go into that next chapter or this is it for you.”
Actress Anne Hathaway’s ultimate decision to abstain from alcohol was for several reasons: the multi-day hangovers, the emotional “wallowing”, plus her responsibilities as a mum of two young sons.
“I knew deep down it wasn’t for me,” she said about drinking. Initially fearing she would be judged she said, “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.”
Movie star turned talk-show queen Drew Barrymore, who famously descends from a hard-drinking Hollywood acting dynasty, said her decision to quit drinking stemmed partly from a wish to break the cycle of substance abuse in her family.
“It’s just like, you know what? This didn’t work for our family, and I’m going to stop it,” the Charlie’s Angels star and mother of two daughters explained of her decision.
A “blackout drinker” from a young age, Barrymore feels shame about that period in her life and has been sober for more than six years.
She has spoken candidly about how her dependence on alcohol impacted her relationships and was a coping mechanism during her 2016 divorce from Will Kopelman, acknowledging that it was a “toxic behaviour” that held her back throughout her life.
Now 50, the TV host said, “I’m going to be the one to break the link in that chain and maybe my kids and their kids will be better off for it.”
Marvel star Tom Holland started his sobriety journey in January 2022 after realising his social life revolved around drinking.
“Every Friday after work was a write-off: Let’s get drunk and have a good time. I didn’t have bad experiences, but I would drink enough so that I would ruin my next day,” he told Men’s Health.
The Spider-Man star pushed himself from one month without alcohol to six months and is now a role model of sobriety, even getting up early on Saturday mornings to play golf and spruiking his own zero beer, Bero.
Holland has stated that giving up alcohol has improved his relationships with his girlfriend Zendaya — who has never had a single alcoholic drink — and his family.
On her 21st birthday, Zendaya posted to her social media that she would not be celebrating with alcohol after reaching the legal age in the US and that she had no desire to start.
The singer and actor added her life was “too stressful to need help with relaxing by having a cocktail. This industry is way too nuts for me to not be in control of myself and my decisions, so I just don’t want to introduce drinking! Plus, I don’t want drinking to become a vice. Why try something if you don’t need it?!”
For others, the clean-living switch came as a result of devastating substance abuse issues with the most famous example being Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr.
One of the first actors to publicly hit rock bottom and overcome his addictions, Downey’s lifelong battle started when his father offered him marijuana at the age of six.
Brad Pitt is now clean and sober after a marriage-wrecking booze addiction, with the A lister putting his sobriety down to the support of good friend Bradley Cooper, who himself miraculously overcame addictions to cocaine and alcohol.
Former child star Daniel Radcliffe said the pressure of the spotlight led him to drink while still in his teens and by the time he was working on the sixth Harry Potter film he knew he had a problem. He was 18.
Radcliffe went sober in 2010 but relapsed in 2012, leading to a bar brawl in New York. The incident made headlines and was a wake-up call for the actor who realised his entire personality changed when he drank.
To maintain his sobriety he said he hits the gym and goes on long walks.
Aussie country star Keith Urban used to be addicted to alcohol, but is now totally sober and a complete family man, devoted to his wife and their two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.
In a 2022 profile for The Sunday Times, Keith revealed that his wife had “saved his life” by staging an intervention and forcing him into rehab mere months into their marriage.
“I had to find a different way to be in the world,” Urban said.
Supermodel Elle Macpherson has been sober for decades and has told how a stint in rehab helped her realise she was using alcohol to help numb feelings of anxiety about being a parent, a businesswoman and life partner.
TV host and singer David Campbell, the son of Jimmy Barnes, has been sober for over a decade, saying the decision to ditch alcohol was “like a weight removed from my shoulders (and liver)”.
Former Home and Away star Tammin Sursok said she made the decision to give up alcohol two years ago after realising she had been using it to ease social anxiety, while actor Ruby Rose has described quitting booze as “the best decision I have made”.
Reality stars Rob Mills and Matt Agnew are also teetotal, with Mills admitting that he used to turn to booze to cope with his depression.
For The Bachelor star Agnew, drinking was putting an increasing strain on his mental health before he stopped it for good.
Beloved TV and radio host Chrissy Swan gave up booze because it “wasn’t serving her” to ease her anxiety and transform her health.
Speaking on The Project in 2021, Chrissy revealed that she had been relying on alcohol to deal with the anxieties of Covid lockdowns.
Personal trainer Kayla Itsines has told how she hasn’t had a drink in years due to a love of sport.
“I have always been an advocate for everything in moderation, the same goes for alcohol — and it’s up to you if you decide to drink,” she said.
“But I have found eating healthily and being regularly active have much greater health benefits.”
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Originally published as Aussie and Hollywood stars who’ve dropped the drink
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