These days celebrities are in the habit of sharing a lot more of their personal lives than they did in the past. While a handful of them could work on keeping some things closer to the vest, there is value in seeing your favorite stars overcoming some of the same challenges non-famous people do. The following celebrities have been open about their particular sobriety journeys. If you’re someone who has struggled with substance abuse, or know someone who has, these celebs prove you’re not alone.
Ari Lennox
Last month, singer Ari Lennox posted a picture of herself looking healthy and strong. In the caption, she announced that she was 7 months sober.
“That’s a lot of sober flights. A lot of sober conversations. A lot of facing things raw and head on. Honestly I don’t know what will happen when I reach a year sober. Don’t know if sobriety is forever or not but I can’t imagine going back to how things were,” she shared.
Lennox revealed that she’d passed out in public and her emotions were not regulated because of alcohol. After months of restraint, she says she’s “more in control, more stable, more happy, more alert, more safe and More accepting of things I can’t control and more responsible with things I can.”
Bobby Brown
R&B legend Bobby Brown has spoken openly and honestly about his addictions to crack, heroin, cocaine and alcohol and the role it played in his marriage to Whitney Houston. Today, Brown has been sober from substances for more than 20 years and from alcohol for two years.
“Being an addict is really hard,” Brown said in his A&E Biography: Bobby Brown “You don’t know you are an addict until it gets worse and worse and worse.”
Brown admitted that he and Whitney “would still be together if it wasn’t for drugs. Drugs just got the best of us.”
Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith knew firsthand how drugs could wreck havoc on a person’s life. But she didn’t think the same would apply to her when it came to alcohol.
“I found myself drinking two bottles of wine on the couch and I said, ‘Jada, I think we’ve got a problem here,’” the actress and host said in 2005.
Pinkett Smith had to dig deep to address her issues with alcohol.
“I had problems with alcohol and I really had to get in contact with the pain, whatever that is, and then I had to get some other tools in how to deal with the pain. From that day on I went cold turkey; I haven’t had a drink in eight years.”
Naomi Campbell
In a 2010 interview with “British Vogue,” Naomi Campbell revealed that she struggled with addictions, first with cocaine and later with alcohol.
“The time between 1998 and 2005 was especially bad,” she admitted. “During that time I avoided looking in the mirror, because I didn’t like the person who was looking back at me. To be honest, there were times I thought I wouldn’t survive.”
In an interview with Oprah, Campbell shared that she realized things had to change when she “showed up to do a job and basically collapsed.”
Campbell found that she replaced cocaine with alcohol. But eventually she enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous. She told “Life & Style,” “Not drinking makes me a lot happier.”
Nicki Minaj
Minaj hasn’t spoken in depth or specifically about her sobriety journey. But she gave the public a peek into her experiences last year with a series of tweets.
First, in response to someone asking if she was high, Minaj said, “No I’m sober & loving life. You?”
Later, she shared more:
“I used to b happy when I was high. Now I’m happy when I’m sober,” the rapper wrote. “No judgement to anyone. Be gentle with yourself.”