Brad Pitt has shared that he has resumed drinking alcohol after approximately seven years of sobriety. The actor acknowledged he “got back off the wagon” in a recent interview with Esquire, stating that his return to drinking is in a “restrained manner” and not in large quantities.
Pitt explained that while he experienced periods where he “got overconfident a couple times” and realized drinking was “not good for me,” he can now manage it.
“Yeah. Well… I can have a few,” Pitt told the magazine, “But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.”
The actor has been open about his past struggles with alcohol. In a 2017 interview with GQ, he admitted to drinking too much following his divorce from Angelina Jolie, though he had stopped for six months at that point. He also shared in a 2019 New York Times profile that he had attended Alcoholics Anonymous for about 18 months after the split, describing the experience as “freeing.”
At the 2020 National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala, Pitt credited fellow actor Bradley Cooper for inspiring his sobriety, stating, “I got sober because of this guy, and every day has been happier ever since.”
Pitt, 62, has two films scheduled for release this fall: “Heart of the Beast” and “The Adventures of Cliff Booth.” He also recently finished work on the thriller “The Riders,” expected next year.
His personal life has been a subject of intense media scrutiny, particularly following his contentious divorce from Jolie, which involved accusations of abuse. Although Pitt settled the divorce in 2024, his relationships with his adult children remain reportedly strained.
In the Esquire interview, Pitt also briefly touched on his mental health, stating he has never been suicidal but has come to understand “suicide, in the sense that it’s just relief” during a period of “oppressive” pain, which he alluded to as “family stuff” without further detail.