‘I was pretty much on my knees’: Why Brad Pitt stopped drinking after split from Angelina Jolie

Brad Pitt has revealed he’s started drinking again after spending seven years sober, but says he’s now much more careful about how much alcohol he has.

He opened up about his relationship with alcohol in a new interview with Esquire, after offering the interviewer a glass of wine and being asked whether the drink was simply there for guests.

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“No, I got, I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,” Brad said with a “little laugh”.

The admission comes years after Brad first opened up about getting sober and the role alcohol had played in his life.

Why did Brad Pitt stop drinking?

Brad has previously been remarkably candid about his struggles with alcohol, particularly around the breakdown of his relationship with Angelina Jolie.

In a 2017 interview with GQ, he said he couldn’t remember a day after leaving college when he wasn’t drinking, smoking pot or using something. He also admitted that although he loved wine, his drinking had eventually gone too far.

Speaking to The New York Times in 2019, Brad said he had spent a year and a half in an all-male recovery group in Alcoholics Anonymous. He also publicly thanked Bradley Cooper for helping him get sober during an emotional speech at the National Board of Review gala in 2020.

Brad has previously described the period as one in which he desperately needed to change his life.

Speaking to Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast, he said: “I was pretty much on my knees, and I was really open. 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.”

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His decision to stop drinking came during an especially difficult period in his personal life. In 2016, Brad separated from Angelina Jolie after 11 years together, with the pair’s split becoming the beginning of a lengthy and complicated period for the former couple.

Brad has previously said that he took responsibility for his drinking and recognised that he needed to make a change.

Brad Pitt previously opened up about getting sober

When Brad spoke to The New York Times about the period following his split from Angelina, he kept details of what had happened between them private.

“I had family stuff going on…We’ll leave it at that,” he said.

Their relationship reportedly ended following arguments surrounding Brad’s drinking. Reflecting on his decision to get sober, he said: “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.”

Brad has also previously spoken about the emotional impact of his divorce and admitted he had to confront some difficult parts of his own behaviour.

Via Apple Original Films

Taking responsibility for the split, which he admitted felt like a death, Brad said: “I’m an a**hole when it comes to this need for justice. I don’t know where it comes from, this hollow quest for justice for some perceived slight. I can drill on that for days and years. It’s done me no good whatsoever.

“It’s such a silly idea, the idea the world is fair. And this is from a guy who hit the lottery. I’m well aware of that.

“I hit the lottery and still would waste my time on those hollow pursuits.”

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Featured image credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock