The road to sobriety is seldom an easy one and for these stars, it took hitting rock bottom to finally get clean.
"There are a couple of common fallacies about sobriety and one of them is that people hitabottom and that's that, but most addicts havemanybottoms,"Dax Shepard(who has been open about his past drug and alcohol addiction) explained while onOff Camera with Sam Jones.
Other stars such asLucy HaleandJodie Sweetinhave also opened up about their struggles with addiction. Even more inspiring is their advocacy for people who struggle with staying in recovery and their willingness to let fans know that being sober and staying sober is not an easy journey.
Below, see some of the celebrities who opened up about being hitting rock bottom and what they had to say about it.
Lamar Odom
"I was in a motel room, getting high with this chick, and my wife (at the time) walked in," he wrote in an emotional essay forThe Players' Tribune. "That probably was like rock bottom. First of all I was in a motel. A motel."
"I'm a millionaire. I'd made it out of Jamaica, Queens, and won two NBA titles," he continued. "And I'm in a motel, with some random person, doing coke. But I just wanted to get high with this girl, and I had no other place to go. I couldn't take her home. You know, I was being a scumbag. Nothing else I got for that. No excuses. No bulls--t. That's just the truth."
"My d--k and my habit took me down all the roads that you don't ever wanna go down," he admitted. "A lot of great men are fools to that."
In January 2026, Odom wasarrested for an alleged DUI and two traffic violations. He sought treatment for cannabis addiction in a 30-day program at iRely Recovery in Los Angeles and pled not guilty. A trial is set for July 7.
Keith Urban
During a 2025interview with Zane Lowe,Keith Urbanrevealed that even in the midst of his addiction, he knew there'd come a moment of reckoning.
"All through the years of drinking and doing drugs and the rest of it, I always had this specific voice inside of me that goes, 'One day you're gonna come to a crossroads or fork in the road and it'll be the final one. You're either gonna choose to get out of this s--t or you're never gonna get out of it ... and you'll know when it comes,'" he recalled. "This went on for years and in 2006, when that happened and my wife called an intervention on me, I knew that was it. I was like, 'Oh, this is that fork in the road. Here it is."
Urban checked into the Betty Ford Center and sought treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettierre opened up about the opioid and alcohol addiction that almost ruined her career in a July 2022 story for PEOPLE.
"I was on top of the world and I ruined it," the formerNashvillestar revealed. "I'd think I hit rock bottom, but then there's that trap door that opens."
Still, the actress never gave up on her journey and continued to pursue her sobriety. "I put a lot of work into myself and I had to be willing to be incredibly honest," said the actress, who underwent both trauma therapy and inpatient treatment. "
"This hasn't been easy and there were a lot of ups and downs. But I don't regret even the ugliest things that have happened to me. I feel incredibly accomplished. And I feel like I have a second chance."
Panettiere is set torelease a memoirabout her life and the pressures the entertainment industry places on young people on May 12, 2026.
Charlie Sheen
While on the talk showLoose Womenin 2019,Charlie Sheenopened upabout the moment he knew he had to make a change.
"I couldn't get my daughter to an appointment that she had. I don't drink and drive ever, I have never had a DUI," he said. "I was like, 'Wow, I am not even responsible enough to be available for my children's needs.' The next morning I woke up and was like, 'Today is the day.'"
TheTwo and a Half Menactor has been sober since 2017. "Whether it's true or not, I like to think the next hit would kill me," hetold PEOPLE in September 2025.
Though he said he spent his 50s "apologizing to the people I hurt," Sheen revealed his past actions also help him stay sober.
"Forgiveness is still an evolving thing," he said. "I still get what I call the 'shame shivers.' These are the moments that hit me, of the heinous memories and choices and consequences. They're getting farther in between, so I guess that's progress. What has been interesting about making amends is that most people have been like, 'Hey yeah, we're good man, but we hope you've also forgiven yourself.'"
Dax Shepard
Dax Shepard's rock bottom didn't come until he had everything he wanted and still felt miserable.
While onOff Camera with Sam Jones,the actor revealed that a disastrous trip to Hawaii, where "I was hammered and doing drugs the whole time," eventually led him to get clean.
While on a layover from San Francisco to Los Angeles on that same trip, Shepard felt so "physically sick that I had to get some alcohol down." At that point, he had just finished doing the press tour forWithout a Paddlein 2004 and was about to start filmingZathura: A Space Adventureso he was recognizable.
As he was hunched in a corner at the bar, trying to avoid being recognized, Shepard had an epiphany. He told Jones, "I had this moment where I had to take stock of my life: I'm about to star in this movie,Zathura.They're paying me a ton of money, and people recognize me at the airport," he began.
"I'm doing everything I had dreamt of doing for 30 years — it all came true — and I am the least happy I have ever been in my life. I'm closest to not wanting to be alive as I have ever been. And I have every single thing on paper that I wanted."
The actor was 16 years sober before he relapsed during the pandemic in 2020. With the help of wife Kristen Bell and close friends, he got back on the path to recovery. Bellcelebrated his sobriety journeyon Instagram last September.
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovatoopened up about theintervention that turned her life aroundwhile appearing onThe Jonathan Ross Showback in 2017.
The singer revealed that while her family had tried to offer help many times in the past, it wasn't until they threatened to leave her that she got the message.
"The final one, everyone was like, 'We are no longer 'going to leave', we are leaving,' " Lovato recalled. "That was the moment when I thought, 'Okay, I really need to get help and get sober.' This time I knew… I had hit rock bottom and I just needed to do this for myself."
"I knew that I had a lot of life ahead of me but one of the main reasons of getting sober was so that I could be around my little sister because my mom and dad [said I couldn't be around her] if I was doing stuff."
Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino
ForMike 'The Situation' Sorrentino, rock bottom came when he crossed a personal boundary he set for himself.
"When I finally got to rehab in 2015 that was definitely my low, but my lowest was like a day or so before that, when I did something I never thought I was gonna do," theJersey Shorestar wrote in his book,Reality Check: Making the Best of the Situation — How I Overcame Addiction, Loss and Prison,according to ET.
"I ended up trying a drug that I never thought I would try. A drug that kills most people. A drug that most people don't come back from. A drug that I told myself that I would never do, that I thought was dirty. It was heroin."
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His shock at his own behavior forced him to get clean.
Jodie Sweetin
While onSteve-O's Wild Rideback in 2021,Jodie Sweetinrevealed she thought she'd "be the girl to die with a cocktail in my hand," prior to getting sober in 2011.
The former child star began experimenting with drugs and alcohol afterFull Househad wrapped. And while she came out on the other side, there wasn't one incident that led her to get clean.
"I don't know that there was one rock bottom," Sweetin told her hosts. "I actually stopped drinking and using a couple of years before my sobriety — it was like 2009. But I relapsed after I got into a car accident and I was using muscle relaxers."
It wasn't long until Sweetin began misusing her medication and a diner visit with her friend made her realize she needed to stop.
"I wound up at Swingers — the diner — trying to hold a fork [and couldn't]. My friend was there like, 'What's wrong?' and she's sober ... It was a very short time from like using them [to] using them inappropriately and then it was like, 'I just can't do this anymore.'"
John Stamos
WhenJohn Stamoshit his rock bottom, hisFull Houseniece Jodie Sweetin helped get him back on his feet.
While presenting Sweetin with the Writers in Treatment's Experience, Strength and Hope Award for her memoirUnsweetinedback in 2019, Stamos gave an emotional speech, revealing the pivotal role she played in his recovery journey.
"It took me a long time, a long time disappointing everyone who cared about me, culminating in a terrible DUI where I could have killed somebody," Stamos said in his speech,Varietyreported.
"I hit rock bottom. Jodie lovingly allowed me to walk my own path and when I finally humbled myself to ask for your help, I realized that the perky little blabbermouth had become the master of wisdom and was right by my side during some of the most difficult days of my life."
Lucy Hale
Lucy Haledecided to turn her life around after hitting rock bottom at 32 years old. The actress, who battled alcohol addiction throughout her 20s, decided to make a change in 2022 and never looked back.
"I made the choice on the morning of January 2, 2022 that I was going to do everything I could to get sober," shetold PEOPLEin 2024. "I knew if I continued on that path, I would've lost everything I cared about.It was the scariest choice in my life, but also it's been the best gift. When I made that change, everything else changed. My whole life has changed."
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpsonrealized she had hit rock bottom in the process of writing her 2020 memoir,Open Book.
"I didn't realize all the stuff I had to say until I was actually connected to it through music and writing," Simpsontold PEOPLE. "So when I started to go through all the depth of the pain that I was experiencing, I realized I was pretty rock bottom."
In the book, theDukes of Hazardactress chronicled how Halloween 2017 was eye-opening for her. Her then-husband, Eric Johnson, was driving them to a school assembly for their daughter, Maxwell, and though it was 7:30 in the morning, "I'd already had a drink," she wrote.
But things only got worse when Johnson asked her to get their three kids ready for the Halloween party the couple was hosting that night, and she couldn't bring herself to do it.
"I was terrified of letting them see me in that shape," Simpson writes. "I am ashamed to say that I don't know who got them into their costumes that night."
The next day, she gathered her family and friends and committed to getting sober, telling them: "I need to stop. Something's got to stop. And if it's alcohol that's doing this and making things worse, then I quit."
AJ McLean
ThoughAJ McLeanhas admitted to having had "many bottoms" it took one candid comment from his daughter to get him on the right path.
"So literally 10 months ago, I went to go see my girlShania Twainin Vegas," he recalled in anOctober 2020issue of PEOPLE. "Before I even got on the plane, I had already mapped out the whole night. I knew where I was going to go get my drugs. I knew where I was going to go get drunk. I knew all of it and I figured, 'Okay, it's one night. As long as I don't go past a certain time and I don't smell like it, I can go have a nice last hurrah and then come back home. My wife won't know; everything's going to be great.'"
Things didn't go to plan.
He continued, "I never slept. I missed my first two flights back home and reeked of alcohol when I got home. My wife and I had always had this agreement, which was, if I smelled like alcohol, I wasn't allowed to play with my kids — I couldn't be around my kids. But what really hit me was the moment, my youngest daughter Lyric said to me that night, 'You don't smell like my daddy.' And when she said that to me, that was it. Enough said. I felt disgusting."
Immediately after that, he organized a meeting with his sponsor and began putting in the work again.
Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw's rock bottom was when he found himself going for a shot of whiskey before breakfast.
"I remember a moment when I was getting out of bed and going to the liquor cabinet and taking a big shot at 8:00 in the morning and thinking,I have to wake the kids up," the singer, who's been sober since 2008, toldEsquire.
Luckily, he turned to his wife,Faith Hill, who showed him compassion in the difficult moment. "I went straight to my wife and said, 'This is where I'm at.' I was scared. She just grabbed me and hugged me and changed my life," he told the outlet.
Jada Pinkett Smith
During an episode ofRed Table Talkback in 2018,Jada Pinkett Smithopened up about her addictive personality, revealing that she has dealt with "several" addictions in her life, including sex as well as alcohol.
"My sort of addictions jump. They jump around," she explained. "When I was younger, I definitely think I had a sex addiction of some kind, yes, that everything could be fixed by sex. You know what I'm saying?"
She then went on to talk about a time she was addicted to alcohol, saying, "I remember reaching a rock bottom that time I was in the house by myself and I had those two bottles of wine and was going for the third bottle," she recalled. "And I was like, 'Now hold up. You're in the this house by yourself going onto your third bottle of wine? You might have a problem.'"
She ended up going cold turkey.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtismanaged to keep her opioid addiction under wraps for 10 years before she had a moment of truth and had fess up to her older sister. In 2018,she told PEOPLEabout how stealing her sister's painkillers was the catalyst to her sobriety.
"I knew she had them in her suitcase in our guest room closet," Curtis recalled. "I basically took all her opiates. When she was leaving I knew she would pack her suitcase and find her pills missing. I knew I had to acknowledge to her what I had done, and so I wrote her a note and left it on her suitcase."
Her sister's reaction compelled her to seek help. "I came home that day, and she put her arms around me and told me she loved me and she was concerned about me and she was unwilling to watch me kill myself."
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The road to sobriety is seldom an easy one and for these stars, it took hitting rock bottom to finally get clean. ...
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