Lucy Hale is ready to open up about her incredibly inspiring journey to sobriety.
The actress is being honored with the 2024 Humanitarian Award from Friendly House, a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to supporting women recovering from alcohol and substance abuse. To mark the honor, she sat down for an interview with People in which she detailed her history of addiction and how she became sober at 32.
"Since a very young age, I always felt alone and misunderstood," Hale explained. "So as a teenager, I found alcohol—which of course shut my brain off. And it worked for me for a while, until it turned really dark."
The Hating Game star revealed that she'd been trying to get sober for a long time before she was able to fully give up alcohol.
"It took many, many, many years, many relapses, many dark moments, many falling on my face quite literally, but figuratively as well to figure out what was working in my life, finding out why I was drinking, because removing alcohol is just one part of it," she said.
For Hale, her acting career—and particularly the success of Pretty Little Liars, which ran between 2010 and 2017—was the "North Star" that gave her "purpose" throughout the dark times. "But I was constantly in this cycle of extreme depression and anxiety while having to show up to work and be on," she said. "And that 'being on' fueled even more drinking… I was caught in this cycle that I couldn't get out of."
Eventually, Hale said, she hit "rock bottom" at the age of 32, and that's when everything changed for her. "I made the choice on the morning of Jan. 2, 2022 that I was going to do everything I could to get sober," she told People. "I knew if I continued on that path, I would've lost everything I cared about. It was the scariest choice in my life, but also it's been the best gift. When I made that change, everything else changed. My whole life has changed."
The actress went on to stress that sobriety is still a daily choice she makes, and that the journey has taught her to enjoy the everyday moments in life, and to own her story and her truth.
Hale previously opened up about her sobriety during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show in January. Before that, she had revealed that she was sober just over a year into her sobriety, in February 2023, but had not gone into as much detail about her path to get there.
If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol or substance abuse, contact the SAHMSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP, or visit Alcoholics Anonymous for more information.
