37 sober celebrities who say quitting alcohol changed their lives (2025)

Whether you're embarking on Sober October, having a break from alcohol for another reason, or have been sober for some time now and are interested in the stories of others, it's always inspiring to hear about the sober celebrities who don't drink.

As for why people choose to knock boozing on the head, the answers are as personal and unique as each one of us. From wanting to improve their mental health, to being able to achieve a better work-life balance and clarity, the below celebrities – ranging from Blake Lively to Tom Holland – share their reasons for stopping drinking. In fact, some never actually started!

Happily, with plenty of people opening up the conversation around alcohol (famous and non-famous faces alike) and there being so many (genuinely) great alcohol-free beverage options out there, it really feels like positive change is happening when it comes to drinking culture.

So with that in mind, here are 37 sober celebrities on why they live an alcohol-free life:

Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway revealed why she made the personal decision to give up alcohol in a candid interview with Vanity Fair. "I knew deep down it wasn't for me. And it just felt so extreme to have to say, 'But none?' But none. If you’re allergic to something or have an anaphylactic reaction to something, you don't argue with it. So I stopped arguing with it."

The Devil Wears Prada star, 41, wanted to be clear that "it's a path everybody has to walk for themselves".

"My personal experience with it is that everything is better. For me, it was wallowing fuel. And I don't like to wallow. The thing that I have faith in is that everybody else is going to have one or two drinks, and by the time everybody gets to two drinks, you’ll feel like you’ve had two drinks—but without the hangover," she added.

Zendaya

While the Euphoria star may portray a troubled character, Rue, who is struggling with substance abuse issues, Zendaya herself has made it clear she has no interest in alcohol. Posting on her 21st birthday, when she reached the legal drinking age in America, the actor said, "Today I turn 21! Just because I'm now the legal drinking age, doesn't mean I’m going to start throwing 'em back. I don't plan to start drinking."

Continuing on with her social post, Zendaya added that her life is "too stressful to need help with relaxing by having a cocktail. This industry is way too nuts for me to not be in control of myself and my decisions, so I just don't want to introduce drinking! Plus, I don't want drinking to become a vice. Why try something if you don't need it?!".

Josh Peck

The former Nickelodeon regular speaks openly about how he stopped drinking alcohol with the help of a 12-step programme. In a 2022 interview, he shared that sobriety that keeps him "anchored".

"I'm lucky to have found recovery through a 12 steps program almost 14 years ago and it's something that I still do regularly to this day," Peck told Page Six. "It gives me a lot of structure in my life. It's really the bedrock of my life and from it, all these wonderful things have been built."

Lewis Hamilton

Having started drinking at just 16, the Formula One driver, now 38, has embraced a sober curious lifestyle after accepting how debilitating his hangovers had become.

"​​I’ll suffer for several days—sometimes it’ll be like three or four days," he says. "You have that one shot and are like, 'Damn, why did I do that?' when you get home."

Hamilton adds that alcohol also had a detrimental effect on his mental health and pressure ahead of races, something he struggles with as a pro athlete.

"I don't know if I’m going to drink again," he continued to Vogue. "Since I’ve stopped drinking, I’ve just been feeling so much better, so much more clarity. I sleep better, I wake up in the morning and I can still get up at 5 a.m."

Zac Efron

The Iron Claw actor spoke about his choice to go sober back in 2016 – when asked by ELLE US how sobriety has changed his life, the star replied, "What I found is structure. That led me to a balance of opposites: You get out of life what you put in. There was a moment when my morning routine was, like, Get up and Google yourself. But that stopped, dramatically and instantly, probably three years ago.

"I realised that viewing yourself through other people's pictures is not living your own life. I wasn't really being myself. A lot of my hobbies had gone out the window. I couldn't skateboard or surf for fear of being followed. Crossing the line of fear is what leads to greatness."

Elle MacPherson

At the weekend, Australian model Elle MacPherson took to Instagram to celebrate 20 years of sobriety. The 59-year-old proudly shared a snap of her blue and gold Alcoholics Anonymous tri-plate token, complete with 'XX' in the middle, which stands for 20 in Roman numerals.

Back in 2020, Elle opened up about her decision to go sober to mark a milestone birthday - her 40th. While speaking to Gritty Pretty magazine, she said: "It's funny, 40 is such an introspective year. I actually got sober when I was 40. I felt like I wanted to spend time in introspection," she continued. Elle's sober living decision was part of a pledge to concentrate on her own health and wellness during her 40s and beyond.

Tom Holland

Tom Holland opened up about living a sober lifestyle, and how his wellbeing has shifted since he ditched the booze. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in May 2023, the actor said that he's been sober for over a year. He later, while appearing onJay Shetty's On Purpose podcast, revealed that the reason he decided to get sober was because he was "definitely addicted to alcohol."

"I didn't one day wake up and say, 'I'm giving up drinking'. I just - like many Brits - had had a very, very boozy December. Christmas time, I was on vacation, I was drinking a lot," Tom explained. "I decided to just give up for January... and all I could think about was having a drink. It was all I could think about. I was waking up thinking about it, I was checking the clock... and it just really scared me."

Following this, he decided to challenge himself to two months being alcohol-free. "If I can do two months off, then I can prove to myself that I don't have a problem," he recalled.

However, Tom admitted that after two months, he was still "really struggling" and that it was a challenge for him to attend work and social events and not have a drink. So, he decided to try and stay sober until his birthday - 6 June. When the date came up, Tom revealed that it was the "happiest" he’d "ever been" in his life and that he's decided to keep his alcohol-free outlook up.

Demi Lovato

It's been exactly five years since Demi Lovato was hospitalised for a drug overdose, and since then, the singer has completely turned her life around. Now living a healthy sober lifestyle, a source close to the star told ET online that "Demi is doing great. She’s sober and living a very healthy lifestyle. She’s surrounding herself with like-minded people that want her to stay that way and continue to support her positive choices."

According to the source, the 30-year-old "goes to therapy, works out, eats clean, and does things that make her happy," including hiking and writing music.

They also added that she "makes herself a priority and has a very close-knit support system that she leans on."

Florence Welch

Last year, Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine revealed in a Spotify Original podcast, The Way We Are with Munroe Bergdorf that she had been sober for eight years. It comes as she recalled her early days with the band, when she realised that - during their rise to fame - she had issues with alcohol.

However, while discussing her life now alcohol free, the singer revealed that "sobriety is the best thing I ever did."

Cara Delevingne

Speaking to Vogue during an interview for the magazine's April 2023 cover, Cara shared that she's proudly been sober for four months – and reflected back on a series of paparazzi shots of herself from last June, taken in Van Nuys airport, that sparked concern. "I hadn’t slept. I was not okay," she shares. "It's heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point it was like, 'Okay, I don't look well'. Sometimes you need a reality check, so in a way those pictures were something to be grateful for."

Cara added that she "started drinking and partying" as a teenager, feeling "this need to escape and change my reality", and spoke candidly about struggling with her mental health (depression and trauma), possibly in part due to her mother's heroin addiction. "I've had interventions of a sort, but I wasn't ready [until after her 30th birthday blow out]. That's the problem," the model also shared, when explaining how she decided to try therapy again, enter rehab and commit to a 12-step programme to build a life away from drugs and alcohol. "I always thought that the work needs to be done when the times are bad, but actually the work needs to be done when they're good. The work needs to be done consistently. It's never going to be fixed or fully healed but I'm okay with that, and that's the difference."

Tyra Banks

According to Forbes, the supermodel once made a statement about her sobriety to her fans: "I feel like I've been very lucky because I don't really have an addictive personality. I've never had any drugs, and I had a little taste of alcohol when I was 12 years old, but that's about it."

Millie Mackintosh

The latest celebrity to share her sober journey is former Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh. Posting a mental health check in on her Instagram, the mum-of-two explained how she had a "breakthrough in therapy" and decided to quit the booze in late 2022.

"I didn’t want to admit it but [alcohol] is a huge trigger for my anxiety. It has an instant negative effect on my mental health and right now I’m focused on... finding happiness in my life and not trying to escape from it. It’s been 12 weeks and I’m enjoying sober life, not missing the ‘han[g]xiety’, feeling more energised, my skin is looking great and I’m sleeping much better," she wrote.

Describing herself as "sober curious," Millie went on to say that she's not sure if she's quitting alcohol forever, but that it's the best decision for her right now – we love this approach to wellness!

Lana Del Rey

In the singer's 2012 Women of the Year profile by British GQ, Del Ray explained that she struggled with alcohol addition for most of her early teenage years, finally getting sober before she turned 20 after moving to New York City to pursue her music.

Jack Harlow

Rapper Jack Harlow quit drinking in 2021, crediting the move as one of the greatest decisions he's ever made. Speaking to Rolling Stone, the First Class singer explained that while he didn't feel like he had a problem with booze, it was around him much more often as his fame skyrocketed.

"I was sick of waking up with a dry throat, sick of feeling bloated and sick of the decisions I make on it," he said, also sharing that drink sometimes made him feel "numb." One year into being sober, we think it's working out pretty well.

Chrissy Teigen

Model and cooking queen Chrissy Teigen took to social media in July 2022 to reveal she'd marked one year of being sober. As well as celebrating the impressive landmark, the 37-year-old shared a raw and honest look back at her drinking days, telling her 40.1 million followers she "never" wants to be that person again.

"Not a drop of alcohol in 365 days! I miss feeling loopy and carefree sometimes, but to be honest toward the end, it didn’t give that fun feeling anymore anyhow," she said in the caption of the post. "I drank to end crazy anxiety that later mostly went away when I – get this – quit drinking! Sigh."

Chrissy continued: "Anyhow I feel really good. Sometimes I get really frustrated looking back on days I should remember way better than I do because of alcohol."

"These are pictures from huge moments in life where my eyes just look… gone. Some are from real work shoots, some just beach days with the family," she added. "While I honestly STILL don’t know if I’ll never have a drink again, I do know I never want to be that way again. And for now, none is best. I’ll let the bad dreams come up and try to sort them out in therapy, without booze."

Nicki Minaj

Rapper Nicki Minaj has opened up about her relatively newfound sobriety, telling fans on Twitter that she is "loving life".

Responding to a follower who asked, "Are you high?", the musician and mum-of-one said: "No I’m sober and loving life." In a second tweet, she went on to add, "I used to b[e] happy when I was high. Now I’m happy when I’m sober. No judgement to anyone. Be gentle with yourself."

The 40-year-old opened up about how becoming a mother has changed her outlook on life, telling James Corden on The Late Late Show that she "sees more good in people" and "more good in the universe."

She continued: "When I look at my son, I’m reminded that I am so blessed."

Jamie Campbell Bower

Best known to Stranger Things fans as Vecna, Jamie Campbell Bower stopped drinking eight years ago and has been open about his struggle with addiction. Posting a hopeful message to his Twitter in 2022, the actor shared that his drinking was hurting loved ones, but that he'd since turned a new leaf.

"I’m so grateful to be where I am, I’m so grateful to be sober. I’m so grateful to be. Remember, we are all works in progress," he wrote.

Calvin Harris

Superstar DJ Calvin Harris hasn't touch drink for over eight years, after hitting the bottle quite heavily in his early career. Answering a question from a fan on his Twitter, Calvin said that drinking was "clearly affecting" his performances, but that now his shows were "a million times better."

"If you drink, you can’t even remember if it’s a good show or not — and that’s probably for the best, because it would have been rubbish because I’d have been drunk and not making any sense."

Ari Lennox

R&B singer Ari Lennox got personal on her Instagram about her decision to quit alcohol. The 32-year-old shared with her 2 million followers that she's been sober for seven months and that it's made her feel "more in control of [her] emotions."

She also said that she feels: "More stable. More happy. More alert. More safe. More accepting of things I can’t control and more responsible with things I can. I have less anxiety socially and when I’m ready to go, I go."

As well as this, Ari detailed that she's found that her coping mechanisms are now "healthier" and that she is "feeling everything in this world." Plus, she's now able to remember major life events as they're happening, before adding that "sobriety is a very present experience."

While Ari did add that she doesn't know whether she'll continue her sober journey forever - and that she has no idea what will happen when she reaches the one-year milestone - the musician instead reached out to her sober followers for advice. "What have you learned on your journey?" she asked, before concluding her raw post with: "Love you all so much."

Drew Barrymore

The actor initially kept her choice to abstain from alcohol a secret, only choosing to share it with the world after she'd been sober for two years (despite having previously been open about the substance abuse issues she faced as a teenager) – which is absolutely fair enough.

Speaking to TV host Gayle King, Drew admitted that she was previously stuck in a bad cycle, "When you are stuck in a pattern, or if you are going through things and you not only admit them out loud, but you force yourself to say, 'I'm willing to make big changes'... I think we all think we're very weak when we don't make those changes [but when we do, that's where the empowerment comes in]."

She added that she kept her sober journey a secret until it was one she'd built enough confidence in on on a personal level. "I just want to figure this out and go about this with no profession, no public anything, and now it's been long enough where I'm in a lifestyle that I know is really working on a high road for my little journey, and there's so much peace finally being had where there were demons."

Drew, we have nothing but respect for your honesty!

Jessica Simpson

Former reality TV star, Jessica Simpson, took to social media recently to reflect on her four years of sobriety. Speaking to her 6.2 million Instagram followers, the 42-year-old said: "This person in the early morning of Nov 1, 2017 is an unrecognisable version of myself. I had so much self discovery to unlock and explore."

She went on to explain how alcohol had kept her "mind and heart circling in the same direction" revealing that she was "exhausted." Four years on from her decision to stop drinking alcohol, Jessica said, "I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do... I own my personal power with soulful courage. I am wildly honest and comfortably open. I am free."

The TV personality also pointed out how society's attitude towards alcohol addiction needs to change. "There is so much stigma around the word alcoholism or the label of an alcoholic. The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness and self sabotage."

Kit Harrington

In an interview with The Sunday Times, The Game of Thrones star candidly discussed his issues with alcohol and addiction, while both filming the TV show and after it wrapped. "I went through some pretty horrible stuff," Kit explained, referencing his very intense periods of depression. "Things that have happened to me since Thrones ended, and that were happening during Thrones, were of a pretty traumatic nature and they did include alcohol. You get to a place where you feel like you are a bad person, you feel like you are a shameful person. And you feel that there’s no way out, that’s just who you are."

However, he added, that alongside going to rehab, changing his thoughts surrounding the expression 'a leopard never changes its spots' was a helpful turning point. "Getting sober is the process of going, 'No, I can change'," Kit said. "One of my favourite things I learnt recently is that the expression 'a leopard doesn’t change its spots' is completely false: a leopard actually does change its spots. It really helped. That was something I kind of clung to; the idea that I could make this huge fundamental change in who I was and how I went about my life."

He has now been sober for three years, saying, "I have a child and my relationship is brilliant… I’m a very, very happy, content, sober man."

Lily Allen

To celebrate a year of sobriety, the singer shared a series of glowing photographs on Instagram (and one less flattering 'before' shot), writing, "1 year completely sober! So grateful for my health and happiness." Back in 2018, she told GQ that at her worst she drank a bottle of Grey Goose vodka a day. Now, she's been alcohol-free for three years. Go, Lily!

Naomi Campbell

The super model told Vogue UK that in the past, she struggled to control her drinking. "The time between 1998 and 2005 was especially bad. During that time I avoided looking in the mirror, because I didn't like the person who was looking back at me. To be honest, there were times I thought I wouldn't survive. I used to have a lot of problems... amongst others I drank too much, so I joined Alcoholics Anonymous to get and stay sober."

Naomi also checked into rehab for a cocaine addiction back in 1999 and continues to talk about her experiences with both drugs and alcohol to help others.

Miley Cyrus

Sharing that there's a history of addiction in her family, Miley said in June 2020 that she's been 'sober, sober' for six months – also prompted in part by needing to have vocal surgery. "I’ve been sober sober for the past six months. At the beginning, it was just about this vocal surgery... It’s really hard, especially being [sober and] young, there’s that stigma of 'you’re no fun' [but] it’s like, 'Honey, you can call me a lot of things, but I know that I’m fun'."

She added that she doesn't miss hangovers either. "I don’t want to wake up feeling groggy. I want to wake up feeling ready."

Jada Pinkett Smith

Now sober from both drugs and alcohol for over 25 years, a report by Contact Music said Jada's wake up call came when she was regularly drinking two bottles of wine. "I found myself drinking two bottles of wine on the couch and I said, 'Jada, I think we've got a problem here.' I had problems with alcohol and I really had to get in contact with the pain, whatever that is, and then I had to get some other tools in how to deal with the pain. From that day on I went cold turkey."

Daniel Radcliffe

The Harry Potter star explained this his drinking problem stemmed from feeling lost in life. "I definitely think a lot of the drinking that happened towards the end of Potter, and for a little bit after it finished, it was panic and not knowing what to do next, and not being comfortable enough in who I was to remain sober."

Speaking about his decision to go sober, he said it felt "weird" to give up alcohol at such a young age, but that he was "very, very happy" about it. "But I will always be fascinated and frustrated by the question of, 'is this something that would have happened anyway or was this to do with Potter?’"

Eva Mendes

She opened up about her experience in rehab during a chat with Interview, saying that choosing to go teetotal is a decision that should garner more support in Hollywood. "The other day I was reading an article. I don’t even remember who the actress was, but she’s been around for a long time. She said something like, 'I’m proud that I’ve had a whole career without making it to rehab.' That’s such a negative twist on it. I’m proud of people who have the determination and the fearlessness to actually go and face their demons and get better. This is a life or death situation. I’m not a spokesperson, but I want to support people for their decisions when they do go in and get help."

Kristin Davis

For the Sex and the City star, ditching booze came about after she realised it was interfering with her acting. She told Marie Claire UK, "I realised it was not going to end well. I got into the acting program, it was very challenging, I was hungover and I wasn't doing so well in my classes. I thought, 'Do you know what? It's going to be one or the other. I can't really have both.'" Now, she's been sober for over 30 years.

Bradley Cooper

During a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Bradley said his reasons for going sober were about wanting to achieve as much as he could from life. "I don't drink or do drugs anymore. I realised I wasn't going to live up to my potential, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought, 'Wow, I'm actually gonna ruin my life. I'm really gonna ruin it.'"

Leona Lewis

For The X Factor winner, it's the taste of booze that's the most unappealing. "I don't drink - I hate the taste of alcohol," she told InStyle. "When my debut single [Bleeding Love] went to No.1, I celebrated with non-alcoholic champagne."

Jennifer Hudson

During an appearance on the Chelsea Lately show, Jennifer said she's never been interested in alcohol – but that nobody ever believes her when she tells them that. "I’ve never had a drink in my life. I’m sober. Normally as an actor, you have things to pull from. [But when playing a heroin addict] I was like, ‘I don’t know what it’s like to feel any of that.” I’ve never been interested [in alcohol]. Nobody ever believes it…"

Blake Lively

For Blake, it wasn't so much that she gave up drinking, more that she never started. The Gossip Girl icon told Allure magazine in 2012, "I don't drink. I've never tried a drug... it's not like I decided on these strict lifestyle choices and I'm enforcing them. It's just something that I genuinely don't have a desire for."

Since going sober, Blake has even launched her own booze-free drinks brand, Betty Buzz.

Rumer Willis

"My decision to become sober wasn’t out of a need necessarily, it was more just that I did ‘sober January’ and I just decided to keep going," she told People back in 2017. Fair play to you, Rumer! Sometimes taking a break allows people to realise they don't miss alcohol so much after all.

Anne Hathaway

In 2019, the actress announced she was giving up drinking for a very specific eighteen years, after becoming a mother. "I quit drinking back in October, for 18 years," she said. "I'm going to stop drinking while my son is in my house just because I don’t totally love the way I do it and he's getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the mornings."

While chatting on the Lorraine show, she added, "The time I have with him is really precious. And I do leave a lot for work and I found my time with him was getting impacted, not necessarily by the drinking, as I never went out of control around him. But I hate to say it – as you get older, the hangovers get really bad... I had to make a choice and I chose mornings. Isn't that annoying? Isn't that horrible? I'm really irritated by how well it's going."

Pharrell Williams

Not drinking alcohol has long been a part of the rapper and designers life – he told PAPER magazine, "Everybody else can do what they want, but that stuff isn't for me. I've been drunk nine times in my life, and I ate some weed brownies once."

Tyler, the Creator

Known as much for his hilarious social media antics (let us never forget his Vine videos – R.I.P) as he is his music, fans of Tyler are likely already familiar with the artist's wild side. But getting crazy drunk isn't something that appeals, he said during an interview with Fantastic Man magazine, "I just don’t want to drink. I know that I don’t want to be that drunk guy. But I do know I want to hit a jump on a dirt-bike. I can look at that and say: ‘I want to do that.’ I’ve never seen anyone drunk, like, ‘Damn, I want to be that.’ So, I guess I just naturally got it pushed into my head that I have no reason to go over there and get f**king drunk."