Brad Pitt has revealed that he's no longer sober, saying he returned to drinking after seven years without alcohol.
In a profile published by Esquire on Monday, Aug. 10, the 62-year-old actor revealed that he recently ended his seven-year period of sobriety from alcohol. Pitt had previously spoken about joining a 12-step program following his split from ex-wife Angelina Jolie.
After Pitt offered Esquire writer Ryan D’Agostino a glass of wine, D’Agostino asked whether the wine was designated for guests. In response, Pitt clarified that he drinks alcohol himself, but does so in moderation.
"No, I got — I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon," Pitt replied.
"In a more restrained manner," Pitt continued. "I got overconfident a couple times, went, 'Yep, nope, not good for me.' Not in big quantities."
Asked if he can now partake in a glass of wine, the actor said, "Yeah. Well...I can have a few. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it."
The Ocean's Eleven star previously opened up about his sobriety, including the year and a half he spent in a 12-step program after Jolie filed for divorce, during an in-depth interview with The New York Times in 2019.
"You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself," Pitt said, reflecting on his time in the program. "It was actually really freeing just to expose the ugly sides of yourself."
On Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast in June 2025, Pitt also described the period when he entered the program, saying he was "pretty much on my knees" and willing to try anything. “I needed rebooting,” he said, adding that he needed to “wake the f**k up” in certain areas of his life.
In his Esquire profile, Pitt elaborated on additional mental health struggles: "...I’ve never been suicidal except for one little period. And in that one little period, I just thought — I just couldn’t — just didn’t see a way out. The pain was so oppressive that—I wasn’t going to act on this, but I could feel — I could feel the cold steel of the bullet in my head, and it felt like relief. And I thought, Oh, okay, now I understand — I understand suicide, in the sense that it’s just relief. It’s just looking for relief from the pain. But I also think we have incredible survival instincts. And for me, that immediately kicked in, but it was just..."
Pitt didn't clarify exactly when this period occurred, but did confirm that it pertained to "family stuff." Four of Pitt and Jolie's six children — Shiloh, Vivienne, Zahara, and Maddox — have taken steps to legally drop "Pitt" from their last names.
