Actor Brad Pitt disclosed that he has resumed drinking alcohol after maintaining sobriety for seven years. In an interview with Esquire published Monday, Pitt stated, “I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon.” He clarified that he drinks “in a more restrained manner” and has learned to stop when he realizes that drinking is “not good for me” in larger quantities.
Pitt's comments on his sobriety surfaced when he offered wine to the interviewer during their meeting at his Los Angeles home. He explained that while he “can have a few” glasses of wine, he “can’t have a lot” and must maintain a professional approach to drinking.
The actor, who first achieved sobriety in 2016 following his separation from Angelina Jolie, had previously discussed his struggles with alcohol. He shared in a 2019 New York Times interview that he had “taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privilege.” Pitt also described his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on the podcast “Armchair Expert,” calling it an “amazing” experience that gave him “permission to go, ‘OK, I’m gonna step out on this edge and see what happens.’”
His decision to quit drinking in 2016 was reportedly influenced by an alleged drunken incident on a plane. Court documents filed by Jolie claimed that Pitt had physically harmed her and one of their six children during this incident. Pitt and Jolie were declared legally single in 2019, and their divorce was settled last year. Pitt has spoken in the past about feeling “suicidal” during a difficult period of “family stuff” after his split from Jolie.