Valerie Bertinelli, Elle MacPherson, Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe explain how sobriety has changed their lives

Valerie Bertinelli joined a long list of stars who have decided to leave the party life behind. 

After successfully completing Dry January, when one gives up alcohol for the entire month, Bertinelli decided to make a lifestyle change and is approaching her one-year sobriety milestone. The Food Network star gave up alcohol for two reasons.

“I have decided to go Dry January. I like it so far,” Bertinelli announced on her Instagram story at the time. “I’m doing it for two reasons. One, I want to try and cut down the cravings for my sugar. And I think alcohol exacerbates that.”

Secondly, she said, “I want to calm down the cortisol in my body that has been raging for the last five, six years. I’ve been in fight, flight, freeze, fawn mode. And I want to go into rest and digest,” she shared. “I think cutting alcohol will help me do that.”

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One month later, Bertinelli revealed the positive effect that resulted: she lost weight. 

“So, here’s a nice little side effect of Dry January,” she said in a video posted on TikTok. “These jeans that I’m wearing were so tight a few months ago that I couldn’t comfortably button them. Now, they’re so loose it’s time for me to go down a size.”

Below is a look at other stars who have committed to their sobriety for years.

Elle MacPherson

In 2023, supermodel Elle MacPherson celebrated the 20th anniversary of her sobriety. 

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When speaking with Australian magazine Body + Soul in November 2023, Macpherson opened up about deciding to get sober in 2003, saying “it was a wonderful springboard of getting to know myself on a deeper level.”

She went on to say it was a decision she has never looked back on with regret.

“Although it required discipline and persistence, the bottom line is you can’t be well and present in your life if you’re not present and well, and alcohol doesn’t really support that. It’s very difficult to get to know yourself if you’re numbing yourself.”

MacPherson is not the only star that has been sober for decades.

Rob Lowe

In May 2023, Rob Lowe celebrated his 33rd anniversary of getting sober, writing on Instagram about how “grateful” he is to have “found recovery and a tribe that has sustained” him on his journey toward recovery.

“If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction: hope and joy are waiting if you want it, and are willing to work for it,” he added.

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Lowe previously spoke to Variety in 2021 about the origins of his addiction, explaining he began drinking when he was a teenager, with his addiction getting worse when he began acting and was introduced to drugs. He went on to get sober in 1990.

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“Nothing can make you get sober except you wanting to do it,” he told the outlet. “The threat of losing a marriage, losing a job, incarceration – you name the threat, it will not be enough to do it. It’s got to be in you. The reason that people don’t get sober 100% of the time when they go into programs is that people aren’t ready when they go to use the tools.”

Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper discussed his journey to sobriety during an appearance on an installment of “Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge” in 2023. During the episode, he revealed he has been sober since he was 29, calling himself “lucky.”

During the episode, Cooper told Bear Grylls how his previous experience struggling with addiction helped him connect with his character in “A Star is Born.”

“It made it easier to be able to really enter in there,” he said on the show. “And thank goodness I was at a place in my life where I was at ease with all of that, so I could really let myself go. I’ve been very lucky with the roles I’ve had to play. It’s been a real blessing. I hope I get to keep doing it.”

Brad Pitt

After Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016, the actor became sober. He told The New York Times in September 2019, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.”

During his acceptance speech at the 2020 National Board of Review Awards for his role in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Pitt credited Cooper for helping him get sober, saying “every day has been happier ever since.” 

In a June 2022 interview with GQ, Pitt discussed how Alcoholics Anonymous helped him.

“I had a really cool men’s group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe,” he told the outlet. “Because I’d seen things of other people who had been recorded while they were spilling their guts, and that’s just atrocious to me.”

In that interview, Pitt also shared that he gave up smoking cigarettes during the pandemic, saying, “I don’t have that ability to do just one or two a day.” In 2023, Pitt launched a new gin but is reportedly still sober.