Anne Hathaway, 5 years sober, opens up about quitting alcohol
By VIVIAN KWARM | vkwarm@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News
Anne Hathaway is celebrating a “milestone” on her sobriety journey after giving up alcohol five years ago.
The “Idea of You” star opened up about why she sees this as a huge achievement in an interview with the New York Times.
“I don’t normally talk about it, but I am over five years sober,” she explained to the Times. “That feels like a milestone to me.”
The Academy Award-winning actress admits drinking was “probably” a way for her to deal with discomfort.
“It feels a little too exposed to discuss the alienation I felt from my body, but there was a lot of somatic stress there,” she continued. “I was very in my head about a lot of things.”
And as for what made her cut alcohol in the first place? “I knew deep down it wasn’t for me,” the 41-year-old told Vanity Fair. “And it just felt so extreme to have to say, ‘But none?’ But none. If you’re allergic to something or have an anaphylactic reaction to something, you don’t argue with it. So I stopped arguing with it.”
The “Princess Diaries” alum went on to tout it as one of the best decisions she made for herself.
“My personal experience with it is that everything is better,” she continued. “For me, it was wallowing fuel. And I don’t like to wallow.”
But more than anything else, it was becoming a mother to her two sons, 8-year-old Jonathan and 4-year-old Jack, that motivated her to make the change. When alcohol started affecting her ability to be present for her children, she decided it had to go.
“He’s getting to an age where he really does need me all the time,” she said on Ellen in 2019, referring to her eldest son. She recalled a morning where she was taking her child to school after drinking the night before. “I wasn’t driving, but I was hungover. That was enough for me. I didn’t love that one.”
Hathaway’s new film, “The Idea of You,” follows Hathaway’s character Solene as she embarks on new love as a 40-year-old single mom.
Shooting the film also marked another milestone in her life: “I actually turned 40 the day before we shot Soléne’s 40th birthday,” she told Good Morning America.
“Idea of You” streams on Prime Video beginning May 2.