Brad Pitt's complicated journey with sobriety as actor reveals he's 'off the wagon' after seven years

Brad Pitt surprised fans this week when he revealed he is drinking again after seven years of sobriety. 

The actor, 62, has been candid about his alcohol consumption over the years, going teetotal after his split from Angelina Jolie amid accusations that he flew into an intoxicated rage and poured alcohol over his family while on a private jet in 2016.

On Thursday, a source close to Brad's camp told the Daily Mail that the star's return to drinking was a 'gradual process in recent years'. You can read more about that here.

Yet his journey with sobriety first began in the Noughties, when he gave up marijuana after becoming a father. 

Brad adopted Angelina's adopted children Maddox, Zahara and son Pax in 2006 before welcoming daughter Shiloh later that year and twins Knox and Vivienne in 2008.  

During an appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher in 2009, Brad revealed that he no longer smoked cannabis, explaining: 'I’m a dad now. You want to be alert and my eyes used to glaze over when I did that.'

Brad also revealed that his marijuana habit had impacted his education, previously revealing he was two credits short of graduating college. 

He explained: 'All I had to do was write a paper. What kind of guy is that? That guy scares me, the guy who always leaves a little on his plate. For a long time, I thought I did too much damage - drug damage. 

'I was a bit of a drifter. A guy who felt he grew up in something of a vacuum and wanted to see things, wanted to be inspired. I followed that other thing. I spent years f**king off. But then I got burnt out and felt that I was wasting my opportunity. It was a conscious change.'

His marijuana use had threatened to spiral out of control, with Brad saying in 2012: 'I got really sick of myself at the end of the Nineties.

'I was hiding out from the celebrity thing; I was smoking way too much dope; I was sitting on the couch and just turning into a doughnut; and I really got irritated with myself. I got to: "What's the point? I know better than this."'

Brad credited a trip to Morocco where he witnessed 'extreme poverty' and other social injustices with inspiring him to clean up his act, saying: 'I stopped grass then - I mean, pretty much - and decided to get off the couch.'

In 2017, Brad touched on his sober journey again when he revealed that he 'stopped everything except boozing when I started my family.'

Speaking about six months after Angelina filed for divorce, he confessed: 'I can't remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn't boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. 

'And you realize that a lot of it is, cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I'm running from feelings. I'm really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family.'

'But even this last year, you know, things I wasn't dealing with. I was boozing too much. It's just become a problem.' 

On giving up alcohol, he continued: 'And I'm really happy it's been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I've got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think that's part of the human challenge: You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve.'

On the winery he co-owned with Angelia, Brad added: 'I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute. 

'And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.'

Yet he said it was time for a change because he didn't 'want to live that way anymore', noting that he'd replaced alcohol with 'cranberry juice and fizzy water.' 

Brad later credited Bradley Cooper - who got sober two decades ago after struggling with alcohol and cocaine addiction - with helping him give up alcohol. 

When introducing Bradley at the 2020 National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala, Brad shared: 'I got sober because of this guy. And every day's been happier ever since.'

The Fight Club star also revealed on a separate occasion that he used alcohol 'as a disservice to myself, as an escape.'

Asked if he found it 'necessary' to quit drinking altogether, Brad replied: 'To some degree, yes.'

He went on to tell the New York Times in 2019: 'I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.'

In AA, he said: '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.'

Brad later called AA a 'wake up call', explaining how he went from being 'shy' to 'pretty much on my knees and I was really open.' 

Speaking on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast last year, he mused: 'I was trying anything and everyone. Anything anyone threw at me. It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f**k up in some areas.

'I just thought it was just incredible men sharing their experiences, their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches, and a lot of humor with it. I thought it was a really special experience.'

He went on to note that meetings soon became 'something I'd look forward to.'

This week, however, Brad revealed he had begun drinking again - but insisted he is now more mindful of his consumption.

In a wide-ranging interview with Esquire, the actor admitted he had gotten 'back off the wagon' after the interviewer noticed the star had offered him a glass of wine.

When asked if the beverage was for guests, Brad responded: 'No, I got - I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,' he said, offering a little laugh.

He continued: 'In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, "Yep, nope, not good for me." Not in big quantities.'

Brad then clarified he is now able to 'have a few' glasses of wine but is unable to indulge any further, stating: 'Well... I can have a few. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.

The interviewer then noted that Brad had becoming something of a morning person in recent years and 'you can miss a lovely morning when you drink too much the night before, and it’s just not as interesting.'

Following the admission, a source told The Daily Mail: 'This was a personal decision. He has spent years reflecting on his relationship with alcohol and knows what works for him.'

Angelina was also said to have reacted to the news, with a source claiming to Rob Shuter's Naughty But Nice column that the actress was 'not surprised', adding, 'she tried to warn people. She knew this was always a possibility.'

The insider added that Jolie had 'long believed that sobriety did not necessarily mean the underlying problems [Brad had] had disappeared.

'She doesn’t believe Brad has fundamentally changed. She believes Brad is who Brad is, and no amount of sobriety or reinvention changes that,' they claimed.

The Daily Mail has contacted Brad and Angelina's representatives for comment. 

For help and support with alcohol issues in the UK, contact Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for free on 0800 917 7650 or email [email protected] 

In the US, AA can be reached on 212–870–3400