Brad Pitt is opening up about his current relationship with alcohol.
In an Esquire profile published Monday, August 10, journalist Ryan D’Agostino pointed out that Pitt, 62, offered him wine earlier in their conversation and asked whether alcohol was just for guests.
“No, I got — I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,” Pitt replied with a “little laugh” before raising his eyebrows and holding up a finger. “In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, ‘Yep, nope, not good for me.’ Not in big quantities.”
Pitt went on to explain that he “can have a few” glasses of wine, but he has a limit.
“But I can’t have a lot,” he explained. “I have to be professional about it.”
Pitt has been candid about his sobriety through the years, attending Alcoholics Anonymous in 2016 after an incident on a private jet with his family that led to a child abuse investigation. He was cleared by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services later that year. (One week after news broke of the incident, Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt. The pair’s proceedings were finalized in 2024.)
“Personally, I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um — cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I’m running from feelings,” he told GQ in 2017.
He continued, “I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean, I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know — things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s just become a problem. And I’m really happy it’s been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again.”
Pitt went on to form a friendship with Dax Shepard while attending Alcoholics Anonymous and later reflected on their dynamic during a 2025 appearance on Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast.
“You go around in a circle, it’s kind of a spiral because it’s a really crowded room. Dax was usually near the end because he’s been there a while. He’s kind of like an elder statesman. And I really respected it,” he said at the time. “It was really open, honest, was a way to take whatever theme seemed to go in the evening and then put it in the funniest package. And it meant a lot to me, it really did.”
Pitt recalled trying “anything anyone threw at me” during that time in his life. “It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting,” he explained. “I needed to wake the f*** up in some areas.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
