Hollywood actor Anne Hathaway’s sobriety revelation

NZ Herald

30 Apr, 2024 02:05 AM3 mins to read

Anne Hathaway, pictured in The Intern (2014), recently revealed how her sobriety was going.

First intimated in 2019, five years on, how’s the Oscar-winning actor faring?

In an unexpectedly personal update this week, Anne Hathaway has shared the surprise revelation that she hasn’t had a drink in five years.

“I don’t normally talk about it, but I am over five years sober,” she told the New York Times recently, explaining that she quit drinking in 2019. “That feels like a milestone to me.”

She was open about it at the time, discussing it during an appearance The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Hathaway explained that her then 2-year-old son inspired her to quit and she planned to be teetotal for 18 years.

“I’m going to stop drinking while my son is in my house just because I don’t totally love the way I do it and he’s getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the mornings,” she told the show.

Hathaway and husband Adam Shulman have two sons.

“I did one school run one day where I dropped him off at school, I wasn’t driving, but I was hungover and that was enough for me. I didn’t love that one.”

It was also the effects of one big night in particular that helped spurred the change.

“Have you guys ever had to go to a meeting hungover?” she asked DeGeneres’ audience, detailing how she was “just kinda stumbling in with one eye open”.

Hathaway explained that she thought she hid it well. “And at the end of it I said: ‘Listen, I have a confession. I was hungover the entire time.’ And he just goes, “Oh, really? I couldn’t tell’. Then two days later we had another meeting and I showed up and said: ‘Oh, now I can tell’.”

As well as candour about her personal life, Hathaway doesn’t shy away from flaws when it comes to the roles she chooses, and substance issues have made an appearance in Hathaway’s film work, to critical acclaim.

2008 drama Rachel Getting Married saw Hathaway’s character Kym grapple with attending her sister’s wedding just after being in rehab for addiction. In 2016 black comedy Colossal, Hathaway played unemployed writer Gloria who, struggling with alcoholism, returns to her hometown from New York City. Securing a job at a local bar, her drinking escalates - and so do the science-fiction elements of the film’s plot. And Hathaway’s heavy new film Eileen (2023), adapted by Otessa Moshfegh from her book of the same name, is steeped in the dark side of drinking.

It’s the latest in what’s been dubbed a renaissance for the star, who has enjoyed a lengthy career. Next on the release slate for 2024 are The Idea of You and Mothers’ Instinct. She recently returned for a second stint as a Versace campaign star and is a high fashion favourite.

Asked about her thoughts on middle age, she told Rolling Stone that “40 feels like a gift.”