The Oscar winner has been candid about his sobriety journey following his divorce from Angelina Jolie.

Brad Pitt reveals he’s no longer sober: ‘I got back off the wagon’

The Oscar winner has been candid about his sobriety journey following his divorce from Angelina Jolie.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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August 10, 2026 11:56 a.m. ET

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- Brad Pitt revealed that he is no longer sober and is “back off the wagon” after seven years.

- “I can have a few. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it,” he told *Esquire*.

- The Oscar winner has been open about his sobriety journey, which began after his divorce from Angelina Jolie.

Brad Pitt has shared a major lifestyle change.

The actor, who got sober in 2016, revealed in a wide-ranging *Esquire* profile published on Monday that he “got back off the wagon” after seven years of sobriety.

“No, I got—I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,” Pitt told *Esquire,* before clarifying, “In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, Yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities.”

The reporter noted that the Oscar winner had offered him a glass of wine earlier in their conversation. “Yeah. Well . . . I can have a few. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it,” Pitt responded.

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Pitt began his sobriety journey in 2016, after Angelina Jolie filed for divorce following an alleged drunken argument on the former couple’s private plane. A source claimed to PEOPLE at the time that Pitt became “verbally abusive” and “physical” with one of their children while on the plane, which he has denied.

Following investigations by the Los Angeles Department of Child and Family Services and the FBI, no charges were filed against Pitt, and there were no findings of abuse.

He spoke about his sobriety in an interview with *The New York Times** *in 2019. “I had taken things as far as I could take it,” he said at the time. “So I removed my drinking privileges.”

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Pitt then spent 18 months in Alcoholics Anonymous, where the all-male support group astonished him. “You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” Pitt said. “It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.”

Months later, he thanked fellow actor Bradley Cooper, who has been sober for more than 20 years, at the 2020 National Board of Review Awards Gala for helping him get sober and being open about his sobriety journey.

“Bradley just put his daughter to bed and rushed over here to do this,” Pitt said while accepting the Best Supporting Actor award for *Once Upon a Time in Hollywood*. “He’s a sweetheart. I got sober because of this guy and every day has been happier ever since.”

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In June 2025, Pitt got candid about getting sober during an appearance on Dax Shepard’s *Armchair Expert* podcast. “I was pretty much on my knees, and I was really open. I was trying anything and everyone, anything anyone threw at me,” Pitt admitted.

“It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f--- up in some areas. And it just meant a lot to me.”

Jean Catuffe/Getty

Pitt also mentioned that he appreciated finding solace at the AA meetings over time. “Everyone was so open. It gives you permission in a way to go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna step out on this edge and see what happens.’ And then I really grew to love it.”

*If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.*

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