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Spencer Pratt called out Ben Affleck over past comments that the actor made about addiction and recovery.
In a resurfaced clip from Affleck’s 2021 appearance on “The Howard Stern Show,” the 53-year-old Oscar winner, who has publicly battled alcoholism for years, reflected on his own sobriety journey and argued that the “cure for addiction is suffering.”
“I hate to say it, but the cure for addiction, the only cure I’ve seen, and not like these f—— overpriced rehabs or a lot of these fraudulent fixes that are sold to people. And they’re good people who will support you. Alcoholics Anonymous, I think by and large, is a good organization. It’s not the only one. The cure for addiction is suffering,” Affleck said.
Spencer Pratt blasted Ben Affleck’s past comments about the “cure for addiction.” (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images; PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
“You suffer enough that something inside you goes, ‘I’m done,'” he continued. “And I’m lucky because I hit that point where I lost really the things that were the most important. It was not my career or money. It was my relationship with my kids.”
“And what I felt as if it impacted them,” Affleck said. “I recognized it. It was the worst day of my life. I made amends. And for a while I thought, ‘Maybe this is temporary, maybe this feeling is going to go away.’ But since that day, I swear to Christ, I have not ever wanted to drink once.”
On Monday, Pratt, a former Los Angeles mayoral candidate who made the city’s addiction crisis one of his signature campaign issues, reposted the clip along with a blistering criticism of Affleck’s viewpoint.
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“I’d love for Ben to join me on Skid Row and explain his addiction theory to the methed out psychos skinning dogs alive and sleeping in their own feces,” Pratt wrote. “Plenty of suffering out there, and yet…somehow the addiction persists. I wonder what the difference is…”
Digital has reached out to representatives for Affleck and Pratt for comment.
The 42-year-old “The HIlls” alum, who lost his home in the devastating Palisades Fire in January 2025, announced he was running for Mayor of LA on the one-year anniversary of the disaster. Throughout his campaign, Pratt advocated for active intervention to address the city’s overwhelming homelessness crisis, which he described as primarily an addiction issue. He argued that fentanyl and methamphetamine were driving much of the city’s visible homelessness.
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“LA doesn’t have a homeless problem. We have a drug problem,” Pratt said in March.
The drug addiction crisis in Los Angeles was one of Pratt’s signature campaign issues in his run for mayor. (Etienne Laurent)
Pratt repeatedly argued that people suffering from severe addiction should be placed into involuntary treatment under California’s expanded conservatorship law (SB 43), saying many are incapable of seeking help on their own.
In May, he unveiled a five-step plan centered on addiction treatment rather than housing and proposed creating large rehabilitation campuses on federal land outside residential neighborhoods.
His plan also included ending taxpayer-funded distribution of drug paraphernalia, enforcing existing drug laws, partnering with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to target fentanyl dealers, organized drug trafficking, and international cartels operating in LA and cracking down on what he described as NGOs and organizations that bus addicts into the city from other states to receive services.
As part of his campaign, Pratt highlighted reports of abused dogs on Skid Row, calling the issue another consequence of the city’s drug crisis.
Pratt also repeatedly accused his mayoral opponents, Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman, of spending billions on homelessness without adequately addressing addiction.
Since conceding the mayoral race in June, Pratt has continued to use his social media platforms to weigh in on political issues, particularly Los Angeles’ addiction, homelessness and public safety crises.
Affleck has been open about his decades-long battle with alcoholism. (Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Affleck first sought treatment for alcohol addiction in 2001 and has since spoken candidly about his recovery journey, including subsequent rehab stays in 2017 and 2018.
The “Argo” star has described alcoholism as a lifelong struggle and acknowledged relapses along the way. Affleck has previously said that his three children, Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14, whom he shares with his ex-wife Jennifer Garner, have been a driving force in his commitment to sobriety.
During a 2020 appearance on “ABC News” with Diane Sawyer, Affleck said that his experience growing up with an alcoholic father motivated him to become sober.
The actor has said that his three children have motivated him to stay sober. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
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“My dad, he was drunk every day and that was just life,” Affleck recalled. “Then as that got worse, that was really, really painful. But I always said, that would never be me. I am never going to do that.”
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“I wish he had been sober during those formative years, but what he’s taught me is, how important it is for me to be sober now during these formative years for my kids,” he continued.
“I really don’t want my children to pay for my sins,” Affleck added “Or to be afraid for me, which is one of the hard parts of being the child of an alcoholic.”
