Macklemore reveals he takes his daughter, 7, to AA meetings: ‘I don’t want to hide it’

Macklemore is returning to his "favourite place in the world" this November for ZM's Friday Jams. Photo / Supplied

Macklemore has revealed that he takes his daughter Sloane, 7, to his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with him.

In a new interview on Audacy’s Check In podcast, the rapper spoke about his efforts to be honest about his sobriety with his oldest child, whom he shares with wife Tricia Davis along with daughter Colette, 4, and son Hugo, 1.

“Sloane’s been to meetings with me. She asks me questions like, ‘Daddy, how’s your sober meetings going?’ We talk about it, and I don’t want to hide that because it’s not something that I need to feel guilt or shame or secrecy around,” said the artist, real name Benjamin Hammond Haggerty.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @macklemore

“The whole intention is to put it out into the open. Like I’m not a finished product, this is what I’m working on, these are my struggles,” he admitted, adding that he thought it was important to talk honestly with his daughter.

“These are things we might have in our family that we have to keep an eye on. Just be honest. It’s a conversation. There’s no rulebook here. We’re at a new point in parenting ... I think that having that conversation early on is important.”

Throughout his career, the rapper has spoken openly about his struggles with addiction and his journey to sobriety. In July 2015, he told Complex that he had relapsed in 2014 as his fame began to have a negative effect on him.

“I’m rolling around like a 15-year-old trying not to get caught smoking weed in my car,” he said at the time.

“Straight up, driving all around here, like I was 15 years ago. Same s***. I felt so dumb. I felt like I’m just wasting time. What am I escaping here?”

Macklemore decided to get sober again when his wife fell pregnant with their first child.

In 2020, however, he relapsed amid the Covid-19 pandemic,as he told Armchair Expert podcast host Dax Shepard in April 2021. The rapper added that hearing Shepard speak about his own relapse made him cry.

“It was within two months of my Covid relapse, and the disease of addiction is crazy,” he said. “It made me feel, as someone that had relapsed again, like a month or two before, that I’m not alone.”