Brad Pitt says he's drinking again after seven years sober, and he's being surprisingly upfront about it

Brad Pitt says he's drinking again, ending a stretch of sobriety that lasted seven years, and he's talking about it with more honesty than most celebrities bother with.

In a new interview with Esquire, Pitt confirmed he's "back off the wagon" after seven sober years, but described it as a considered, restrained return rather than a relapse. "I can have a few," he said of wine. "But I can't have a lot." He also admitted to testing his limits along the way, saying he'd gotten "overconfident a couple of times" before recognising that heavier drinking still wasn't good for him.

Pitt's sobriety began around the time of his 2016 divorce from Angelina Jolie, a period he's previously described as hitting rock bottom before turning to Alcoholics Anonymous. He's credited actor Bradley Cooper as a key influence, famously telling the crowd at the 2020 Oscars, "I got sober because of this guy." The two have remained close since, and Pitt has spoken publicly several times over the years about what sobriety gave him, including clarity, better relationships with his kids, and a sense of control he says he'd lost.

What makes this update notable isn't the drinking itself. Plenty of people who get sober eventually reintroduce alcohol in a managed way. It's that Pitt is choosing to talk about it at all, in an industry where addiction and recovery are usually handled through vague statements or silence. Framing it as an ongoing, monitored decision rather than a secret slip up is a more honest way to discuss something a lot of people navigate quietly.

Pitt hasn't said what prompted the shift now, and there's no suggestion this signals a return to the drinking that led him to AA in the first place. For now, it reads as a 62 year old actor being upfront about managing something many people manage privately: wine in moderation, awareness of his limits, and no interest in pretending otherwise.