How Ben Affleck and Brad Pitt got sober with the help of their List A friends

(AND) Sobriety has certainly been a journey for Ben Affleck, 47, and Brad Pitt, 56, but they have received some support along the way.

The two leading men from Hollywood have been incredibly open to sobriety after acknowledging that their addictions have taken over over the years. More recently, it's Affleck who is promoting his latest film, The way back, in which he plays a basketball coach who fights against alcoholism. Affleck discussed frankly his own long-standing battle against disease, and in an interview with the New York Times last month, he specifically cited Bradley Cooper and Robert Downey Jr. as two friends who helped him with his sobriety.

"(These are) guys who have been so supportive and who I feel a lot of gratitude for," he said. "One of the things I think people sometimes forget about recovery is the fact that it instills certain values. Be honest. Be responsible. Help others. Apologize when you are wrong."

He again mentioned Cooper, 45, and Downey Jr., 54, in a subsequent interview with Diane Sawyer for Good Morning America.

"Bradley and Robert have been of great help and support to me," said Affleck. "They are wonderful men."

Of course, we also cannot forget Affleck longtime best friend Matt Damon, which he publicly thanked in the past. Affleck's first time in rehabilitation dates back to 2001, but he was open to the idea of ​​being exposed to alcoholism throughout his childhood due to the battle of his father, Timothy. In 2012, Affleck spoke to Barbara Walters about her difficult education and how Damon, 49, helped her.

"Yes, (my father) was an alcoholic … I knew he was a kid," Affleck told Walters. "He drank a lot. My father was – what did they call him – a real alcoholic. He, you know, drank all day, drank every day, and to his credit, he got sober, ultimately, and he's been sober for several decades, which I think is pretty impressive. "

"But I had good friends – I had Matt Damon, my brother is a great guy," he added on how he fared at the time. . "I had a nucleus of friends with whom I grew up and I had the support of me."

In January 2017, Affleck talked to ET about the importance of his friendship with Damon at the premiere of Live by Night.

"I can't tell you how precious it is to have someone who has gone through things with you, ups and downs, who knows what your life experience is like, who can be # 39; identify with that, "he said. "It's an incredibly precious and very precious friendship, just like my friendship with my brother. I don't know what I would do without these guys."

In September 2018, a source told ET that Damon had indeed stopped drinking with Affleck a long time ago, in order to avoid allowing it.

"When Matt and Ben were young, they liked to party together and have fun, but as soon as Matt realized that Ben had substance abuse problems, he made sure that ; he would not allow it, "the source said. "Matt has stopped drinking with Ben because in no way does he want to support another downward spiral. Matt is a very loyal, stable and established friend who only wants success and happiness for Ben."

"Matt wants to have a good influence on Ben," added the source. "Ben's team, his closest friends, and his family really support their friendship. They want them to hang around more, which in turn could help him stick to it. ; away from the crowd who do not support his sober lifestyle. "

AND recently talked to Affleck about his new movie, and he talked about his friends going through problems similar to him.

"I know and I have a lot of friends who have dealt with issues like this, compulsive and addictive behaviors, and the vast majority of them are really honest and responsible people who lead healthy, healthy lives, "said Affleck. "The idea that life is getting better, that you can improve, that you can overcome your obstacles, is very important to me and it is the approach that I loved (The Way Back). It wasn't just like, "Oh, there's alcoholism. It's a bit ordinary."

But perhaps no one has been more visibly supportive of Affleck during his personal troubles than his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, 47. Collect drives a distraught Affleck on his third visit to rehab in August 2018, and in October he was broken up by paparazzi visiting his ex-wife's house as he admitted to having "slipped" regarding his recovery. In his recent NYT profile, Affleck called his divorce from Garner the "biggest regret" of his life, although he also acknowledged that his fight against alcohol resumed during the time he declared that their marriage was falling apart.

"I have been drinking relatively normally for a long time," he said. "What happened was that I started to drink more and more when my marriage collapsed. It was in 2015, 2016. My consumption alcohol, of course, created more marital problems. "

However, Garner was there for himself even after their separation, the two keep spending time together as they co-parent their three children – Violet, 14, Seraphina, 11, and Samuel, 8.

More recently, director of The Way Back, Gavin O & # 39; Connor, revealed how it was Garner who personally asked him to make the film again even after the reinstatement of Affleck in 2018.

"Just as we started preparing the film, Ben fell from the cart," said O'Connor in an interview on 34th Street. "So he ended up going to rehab, and I didn't know if the film was over. The studio certainly thought the film was over. His ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, called me and called me. 39 said that when he went to rehab he took a basketball with him. She said, "Gavin, he asks you, please don't unplug the movie, he really wants to do that. ""

Meanwhile, as far as Pitt is concerned, he also acknowledged leaning on his loved ones to cross him, especially in difficult times. In January – like Affleck – he specifically thanked Cooper for helping him get sober during his speech at the National Board of Review Awards after Cooper gave him the best supporting role award for his work in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

"Thank you, Bradley. Bradley just put his daughter to bed and rushed over here to do it," said Pitt, referring to Cooper's 2-year-old daughter. "He's a lover. I got sober because of this guy and every day has been happier ever since. I love you and thank you."

Another person in Pitt's life who has been affected by his sobriety journey is his ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston. Aniston memorable called Pitt unmoved in his legendary interview with Vanity Fair in 2006 after their separation and he quickly moved on to Angelina Jolie, and he also publicly apologized to Aniston in 2011 after a Parade interview during which he suggested that their common life was not interesting before separating in 2005.

"I spent the 90s trying to hide, trying to get around the celebrity cacophony," Pitt told the magazine. "I started to get tired of sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding. It started to feel pathetic. It became very clear to me that I had it. Intend to try to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn't living an interesting life myself. I think my marriage had something to do with Try to pretend that marriage was something that was not the case. "

In January, a source told ET that Pitt had make peace with Aniston after becoming sober. The source said the two men were gone from their complex past and that the actor, in particular, "apologized" for some of the past problems in their relationship.

"Brad is completely sober now and is in a place so different from what he was when they were together," the source said. "Brad is really an introspective guy who has worked hard on himself. He apologized to her for many things that he considered his problems in their relationship. ; really owns his mistakes and that has changed their relationship with each other today. "

There are well-defined parallels between the struggles of Pitt and Affleck. While Affleck admitted that his alcohol use resumed when he started having marital problems with Garner, Pitt's problems with alcoholism also appeared after his separation from Jolie, 44 in 2016. Pitt told GQ Style in May 2017 that he had been sober for six months – at the time of her separation from Jolie was announced.

"I don't remember a day since I graduated from university where I didn't drink or had nothing special," he told the magazine. about his past. "In truth, I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good."

Pitt said he was using substances to avoid his feelings.

"You realize it's largely, uh-cigarettes, you know, lollipops," he shared. "And I'm running away from feelings. I'm really, really happy to be done with this. I mean, I stopped everything except alcoholism when I started my family. But even this past year, you know – things I didn't drink too much. It became a problem. And I'm really glad it's been six months now, which is bittersweet. "

Pitt and Affleck also spoke of their fathers' contribution to their problems soberly. Although Pitt did not refer to his father as an alcoholic, he noted from his education in GQ Style, "I grew up with a father-knows-better / war mentality – the father is all-powerful , super strong – instead of really knowing the man and his own doubt and his struggles. And that hit me in the face with our divorce: I have to be more. I have to be more for (my children ). I have to show them. And I haven't been good at it. "

Affleck and Pitt name their children the most motivating factor for becoming sober.

"For me, seeing my father was fair, he was drunk every day and it was just life", Affleck recalled in his GMA interview. "And then, as it got worse, it was really, really painful. And I always said," It will never be me. I will never do that. "

"I wish he had been sober during these formative years, but what he taught me was how important it is for me to be sober during these years of training for my children, "he added.

Affleck said he did not want his children to "pay my sins or be afraid for me".

"(It is) one of the difficult parts of being the child of an alcoholic," he said. "Do you think, & what if my dad gets drunk? And if he does something stupid? And if he ends up on TMZ and that is on my thread News and let other children see it? & quot;

"I have been on leave for the last half of the year and I just have to be a dad," he continued. "Take them to school, pick them up. Go to the swimming competitions, come home. This is where parenting happens. It's in the cracks. C & # 39; It’s in the moments when you just bring them back from football and they say something deep or they talk about what they really feel about something and it’s as if it’s that’s where you become the parent. That’s the joy. And that’s what I don’t want to miss. ”

Meanwhile, Pitt – who dedicated his Oscar win to his children last month – talked, above all, about wanting to be there for them in his revealing interview with GQ Style. Pitt and Jolie share six children together – Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 13, and Knox and Vivienne, 11.

"The people on their death beds don't talk about what they got or got. They talk about their loved ones or their regrets," he said. "I say that as a person who let work take me away."

"Children are so delicate. They absorb everything," he continued. "They must have hands in hand and explain things. They must be listened to. When I get into this busy work mode, I can't hear. I want to be better at it."

Interestingly enough, in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2014 Downey Jr. – undoubtedly one of Hollywood's biggest success stories in the fight against addiction – declared that he probably inherited his addiction problems, and also discussed her son, Indio, who was charged with criminal drug possession in 2014. Indio's crime of possession of cocaine was finally rejected in 2016 after successfully completing a 20 month rehabilitation program.

"He is the son of his mother and my son, and he climbed the chasm much faster than we do," said Downey Jr. "But that's typical in the information age things are accelerating. You are faced with stories and predispositions and influences and feelings and unspoken traumas or needs that have not been met, and suddenly there are three of you. miles in the woods. " Can you help someone out of these woods? Yes you can. By not losing yourself looking for them. … choose a dysfunction and it is a family problem. "

In 2012 Cooper – who hadn't yet been a dad at the time – discussed his own motivation to become sober aged 29 in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"I was at a party and deliberately banged my head on the concrete floor," he recalls, citing one of the many incidents of self-harm that he says would let him recover for days. "And then I did it again. I spent the night at Saint-Vincent hospital with an ice sock, waiting for them to sew me up."

"I no longer drink or do drugs," he said. "I realized that I wasn't going to live up to my potential, and that scared me. I thought," Wow, I'm really going to ruin my life. I'm really going to ruin it. ""

And just like Affleck's role in The Way Back, Cooper faced his own personal demons when he played a singer struggling with drug addiction in A Star Is Born in 2018. Cooper also directed the critically acclaimed film, which he starred opposite Lady Gaga.

"Whenever you try to tell the truth, you have to go to places and use things that have happened to you, or that you have read or experienced," said Cooper. Variety in 2018. "And that’s part of the beauty of turning everything that you have lived into history. I find it very cathartic. I remember learning that in doctoral school, our teacher said all the insecurities, all the dark all you can use and that’s really the truth. "

These days, Affleck, Pitt, Downey Jr. and Cooper all seem to be in healthy places in their lives. Affleck gave another big thank you to another actor on Tuesday – this time his The Last Duel co-star Adam Driver, 36, for an act of kindness to his son Samuel, who made her cry.