Everything Brad Pitt Has Said About Sobriety — As the Actor Reveals He Has 'Gotten Back Off the Wagon'

Brad Pitt ended his years-long sobriety.

In a recent interview with Esquire, the Oscar-winning actor revealed he was "sober for seven years" before getting "back off the wagon," though he clarified he now drinks "in a more restrained manner." He initially gave up alcohol in 2016 following his high-profile split from his ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

After ending his sobriety three years ago, here's everything Pitt has shared about his journey.

The Hollywood heartthrob, who started his career in the late 1980s, admitted that his struggle with fame following his breakout role in the 1992 film A River Runs Through It led him to smoke weed.

"I was hiding out from the celebrity thing," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012. "I was smoking way too much dope; I was sitting on the couch and just turning into a doughnut … I was doing the same thing every night and numbing myself to sleep — the same routine: Couldn't wait to get home and hide out."

The Fight Club actor said witnessing "extreme" poverty during a trip to Morocco in the mid-to-late 1990s inspired him to quit smoking weed and "get off the couch."

It mirrored what he shared on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher in 2009, when he said becoming a father also made him leave behind his days of smoking marijuana.

In a separate interview with GQ in 2017, Pitt admitted he "stopped everything except boozing" when he started his family. But after his split from Jolie, he reportedly began his sobriety journey when he realized he was "boozing too much."

"I'm really happy it's been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I've got my feelings in my fingertips again," he shared.

Newly sober, Pitt swapped alcohol for cranberry juice and carbonated water, joking he had "the cleanest urinary tract in all of L.A."

After Jolie filed for divorce, the Legends of the Fall actor "removed [his] drinking privileges" and turned to a 12-step program for help. The all-male group included Dax Shepard, who has been sober since 2004.

He told The New York Times in 2019, "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...It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself. There's great value in that."

While accepting the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2020 National Board of Review Awards Gala, Pitt credited Bradley Cooper with inspiring him to get sober.

"Bradley just put his daughter to bed and rushed over here to do this," Pitt told the crowd. "He's a sweetheart. I got sober because of this guy and every day has been happier ever since."

In a 2019 interview with Anthony Hopkins, Pitt said he viewed drinking as "as a disservice to [himself], as an escape."

He also admitted he felt it was necessary to quit drinking altogether.

The Seven star got candid about his experience with Alcoholics Anonymous in a 2025 episode of the "Armchair Expert" podcast.

"I was pretty much on my knees, and I was really open. I was trying anything and everyone, anything anyone threw at me," he told Shepard. "I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f--- up in some areas. And it just meant a lot to me."

Eventually, the meetings became "something [he'd] look forward to."

In an August profile for Esquire, Pitt confirmed he is drinking again after maintaining seven years of sobriety.

"I got overconfident a couple times, went, Yep, nope, not good for me," he shared. "Not in big quantities."

He clarified he allows himself to "have a few glasses" of wine, "But I can't have a lot. I have to be professional about it."