Backstreet Boys' AJ McLean Offers Sobriety Update After Relapse
Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean detailed the growth he has made in his sobriety poke and why, after a relapse in 2021, he believes he has now gotten sober “for the final time.”
AJ McLean is sober, and he desires it that means.
As the Backstreet Boys member continues on his sobriety poke, which he has overtly discussed over time, he shared he is presently in “the most effective head region I've ever been in my lifestyles” after he “bought sober once more for the final time” in 2021.
“I'm sticking this one out your entire potential,” AJ informed Folks in an interview published July 10. “It's a everyday thing. But I indubitably grasp at final executed what has been quick amongst the sober community, and my lifestyles has flipped in a definite potential.”
The Constructing the Band host—who shares children Elliot, 12, and Lyric, 8, with ex Rochelle McLean—defined that his existing notify is the cease consequence of a time out to Arizona that he took “for moderately departure for myself for psychological effectively being.”
“I'm a tall recommend for the psychological effectively being community,” he endured. “I wished to move dig moderately deeper into my grasp existence and indubitably secure to the foundation of why I did the issues I did to hurt myself and folks I loved.”
AJ endured, “I've chanced on new verbiage, resembling boundaries, by no design indubitably had those. Now I indubitably grasp those, which is a blessing. AJ is a member of a community. He’s a persona, however he doesn't give an explanation for me as an particular person.”
Now, as he illustrious, “Alexander James is who I am.”
In the path of his sabbatical, the 47-yr-dilapidated realized he had “zero self-like” and suffered from what he known as “half of s–tism,” despite the undeniable truth that he has now moved past that harmful pondering. As he set it, “I'm tranquil studying, tranquil rising, however once you happen to don't like me, that's your loss, because I'm a indubitably factual person.”
With his refreshed mindset, AJ is gladly taking in the arena around him with a brand new space of eyes.
“It’s the age-dilapidated asserting of stopping and smelling the roses,” he informed Fox News in an interview published July 10. “I indubitably bodily discontinue and odor flora. I indubitably grasp a new confidence—now not arrogance, now not ego—that I've by no design had. And it's a confidence that’s empowering.”
As AJ defined, “That is thanks to the work I've set in and continue to and must full the rest of my days in existence.”
Be taught on for added stars who were originate about their journeys with addiction and sobriety.
AJ McLean
After the Backstreet Boys member relapsed in 2021, he illustrious he “bought sober once more for the final time.”
“I'm sticking this one out your entire potential,” he informed Folks in July 2025. “It's a everyday thing. But I indubitably grasp at final executed what has been quick amongst the sober community, and my lifestyles has flipped in a definite potential.”
While AJ acknowledged he is “tranquil studying, tranquil rising,” he's now confident in who he is.
“I've chanced on new verbiage, resembling boundaries, by no design indubitably had those,” he endured. “Now I indubitably grasp those, which is a blessing. AJ is a member of a community. He’s a persona, however he doesn't give an explanation for me as an particular person. Alexander James is who I am.”
Jason Biggs
In October 2018, the American Pie monumental title launched he used to be one yr sober in a celebratory and encouraging Instagram post.
“I first tried to secure sober over 5 years ago, when the weight of my obsession with booze and tablets grew to vary into too heavy for me to deal with,” he wrote at the time. “Turns out this s–t is onerous.”
He endured, “After some matches and begins, I’ve managed to position together one yr of sobriety. I’m as happy with it as anything in my lifestyles. Even as you’re struggling, know there’s again. Don’t be ashamed. We are in a position to cease this.”
Years later, he mirrored on his poke with addiction and the lengths he went to veil the his strive towards.
“I’m going to therapy and ‘engaged on issues’ however in the period in-between I’m leaving therapy, having lawful had a factual session, and I’m going to the liquor store and taking a appreciate a fifth of vodka, drinking it and then utilizing residence,” he acknowledged on a March 2024 episode of his spouse Jenny Mollen's The total Fails podcast. “I knew how one can secure wasted ample to the place I took myself out of the lifestyles equation, took myself out of the existing, didn’t grasp to connect in a style that made me indubitably feel issues.”
He added, “I had it figured out to a T. To now not secure too below the affect of alcohol the place I couldn’t grasp a dialog with you. I used to be changing those bottles in the bar your entire time.”
Ashlyn Harris
The 2-time FIFA Ladies folks's World Cup champ has been originate about her misuse of Adderall while combating injuries at some level of her faculty soccer profession.
“I used to be getting indubitably heavily addicted to Adderall and misusing it,” she acknowledged on a 2025 episode of the Quiz Every little thing with Danielle Robay podcast. “I used to be taking it your entire time. I’d move days with out sound asleep. It used to be wild. I felt like I used to be gonna give myself a coronary heart assault. I used to be crushing it. I used to be snorting it. It used to be so problematic.”
However, in the midst of her strive towards, her faculty coach Anson Dorrance used to be there to enhance her.
“It bought indubitably, indubitably darkish and I needed to make some extreme adjustments,” she defined, “and Anson would grasp me learn books. I started reading this e book known as[[Man’s Search] for Which design and it's about suffering and reframing it and it modified my lifestyles.”
Jax Taylor
The Valley monumental title shared his decades-lengthy strive towards with tablets in March 2025 after going to rehab.
“I am popping out that I'm an addict,” Jax shared at some level of the March 4 episode of Bravo's Sizzling Mic podcast. “I indubitably grasp substance issues, primarily with cocaine. It’s onerous to explain out loud.”
“I’ve been facing this on and off since I used to be 23 and now I’m 45,” he endured. “There used to be times the place I’d discontinue doing it however then there were times the place I’d move heavy on it.”
Jax also gave up drinking, explaining, “I don’t primarily convey I indubitably grasp an alcohol convey, however the two move hand in hand. I’m in a position to’t cease cocaine with out drinking. So, I lawful gave up each and each. I’m proud to explain I’m 82, 83 days sober factual now, which is the longest I’ve ever gone in my lifestyles with out both.”
Tom Holland
The Spider-Man: No Manner Dwelling monumental title stopped drinking alcohol in 2022 after feeling “enslaved” to the drink. “I used to be positively addicted to alcohol, now not shying far from that in any respect,” Holland recalled on the On Cause with Jay Shetty podcast. “I convey that someone that has a beer everyday has doubtlessly bought moderately little bit of a convey.”
“And then you definately would lawful reach that moment the place you're like 'Wow, I shouldn't grasp had that final beer,'” the actor endured. “And also you secure up the next day and likewise you grasp a awful headache.”
Since making the each day life commerce, Holland noticed he “can also sleep better” and “deal with issues better.”
“Things that will presumably presumably possibly move imperfect on space that will presumably presumably possibly fundamentally space me off, I’m in a position to also absorb my poke,” he shared. “I had so noteworthy such better psychological readability. I felt extra healthy. I felt more fit.”
Alec Stanley 1st earl baldwin of bewdley
The monumental title of Hunt for Crimson October doesn’t fundamentally enlighten to his sobriety poke, which began almost forty years ago.
“I don't discuss this loads,” he acknowledged at some level of a Could 2024 podcast look. “I discuss it each and each so often when it makes sense. I'm 39 years sober. I bought sober Feb. 23, 1985.”
Speaking about his lifestyles after transferring from Original York City to Los Angeles in 1983, Alec defined, “I had a white-scorching convey each and each single day for two years. I convey I snorted a line of cocaine from here to Saturn. We took it again residence. I imply, cocaine used to be like espresso again then. All americans used to be doing all of it day lengthy.”
And after quitting the drug, he quickly grew to vary into to alcohol—only to also stop that dependency.
Right this moment time, he depends on the town around him.
“Original York relaxes me,” he shared of his residence. “I stroll around and I survey aspects of it that I've by no design viewed sooner than. I'll search at a constructing and I'll move, 'My God, I by no design noticed that about that constructing, those doors.' I indubitably grasp lunches and low and my guests.”
Anne Hathaway
The Princess Diaries alum shared in April 2024 that she is extra than 5 years sober. As she informed the Original York Times, “That appears like a milestone to me.”
Her reasoning used to make certain. “I knew deep down it wasn't for me,” she shared. “And it lawful felt so erroneous to grasp to explain, 'But none?' But none. Even as you're allergic to one thing or grasp an anaphylactic reaction to one thing, you don't argue with it. So I stopped arguing with it.”
And she's happy she made that decision. “My personal skills with it’s that everything is most keen,” she endured. “For me, it used to be wallowing fuel. And I don't prefer to wallow.”
Demi Moore
While accepting the 2018 Lady of the Yr Award by the Peggy Albrecht Friendly Dwelling, a residential program for girls improving from substance and alcohol abuse, Moore spoke regarding the “self-harmful path” that almost derailed her profession.
“I indubitably feel like there's a defining moments in our lives that form who we are and the route we move and early in my profession, I used to be spiraling down a path of exact self-destruction and no topic what successes I had, I lawful by no design felt factual ample,” the monumental title recalled. “I had thoroughly free of payment for myself and this self-harmful path, it very like a flash brought me to a precise crisis level and it wasn't sure at the time the reason. Per chance it used to be divine intervention.”
Moore, who sought therapy in 2012, thanked two unnamed folks she “barely knew” for handing over one thing of an ultimatum to her to flip her lifestyles around. “Except I used to be needless, I better existing up,” she quipped, in conjunction with that she used to be given “a gamble to redirect the path of my lifestyles sooner than I destroyed everything.”
“Clearly they saw extra of me than I saw of myself,” Moore illustrious. “And I'm so grateful because with out that substitute, with out their believing me, I wouldn't be standing here this day.”
Noah Cyrus
Cyrus shared in 2022 that she's been in restoration for her Xanax addiction since 2020. “It gave me so noteworthy constructing in the time that I indubitably crucial constructing, because I didn't grasp to lawful be sitting around and stirring in my brain,” she informed Rolling Stone. “It gave me hope.”
The singer added, “After I felt that it used to be doable to silence issues out for a second and numb your distress, it used to be over.”
She acknowledged her guests at the time “extra or much less cosigned” her drug use and “it lawful extra or much less becomes this darkish pit, bottomless pit.” But, at some level of the pandemic, Cyrus acknowledged she used to be noticing challenges and felt she wasn't emotionally existing. “I used to be thoroughly nodding off and falling asleep,” she recalled. “And unable to retain my head up or retain my eyes originate, because I used to be to this point gone.”
She finally sought again and illustrious that “it took some time to secure on my grasp two feet.”
Dax Shepard
The Parenthood alum used to be sober for 16 years sooner than relapsing in 2020 by taking Vicodin after a bike accident.
“For the final eight weeks perchance, I don't indubitably know…I'm on them all day,” he acknowledged on his Armchair Knowledgeable podcast. “And I'm allowed to be on them at some dosage because I indubitably grasp a prescription and then I'm also augmenting that.”
“And I abominate it,” he endured. “And I'm mendacity to various folks. And I do know I indubitably grasp to stop. But my tolerance goes up so like a flash that I'm now in a pickle the place I'm taking, you know, eight 30s a day, and I do know that's an quantity that's going to lead to a fine gross withdrawal. And I open getting indubitably insecure, and I'm beginning to if truth be told feel indubitably lonely. And I lawful grasp this ample secret.”
Jamie Lee Curtis
In 2018, the Halloween monumental title bought very candid about her 10-yr addiction to opiates, which began in the late '80s after a minor plastic surgical draw “for my hereditary puffy eyes.” The reslt used to be a prescription that modified her lifestyles. “I had a 10-yr high-tail, stealing, conniving,” she informed Folks. “No person knew. No person.”
When her sister visited her in the summer season of 1998 and brought along prescribed painkillers for a rib hurt, Curtis acknowledged she hit her rock backside. “I knew she had them in her suitcase in our guest room closet,” she informed the newsletter, crying at the reminiscence. “I fundamentally took all her opiates. When she used to be leaving I knew she would pack her suitcase and derive her capsules missing. I knew I needed to acknowledge to her what I had executed, and so I wrote her a display and left it on her suitcase. I came residence that day, and she set her palms around me and informed me she loved me and she used to be fascinated by me and she used to be unwilling to gaze me abolish myself.”
She attended her first assembly on Feb. 3, 1999, the identical day she published her strive towards to her filmmaker husband Christopher Visitor. “He used to be incredulous that he'd by no design noticed,” Curtis acknowledged, in conjunction with that she's been sober ever since.
Drew Barrymore
Barrymore, who beforehand went to rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, shared in 2021 that she used to be marking a monumental milestone in her poke. “I'm lawful going to explain one thing for the first time in a actually lengthy time: I indubitably grasp now not had a drink of alcohol in two and a half of years,” she acknowledged on CBS Mornings. “And it used to be one thing that I noticed lawful failed to again me in my lifestyles.”
She added, “It's so humorous. After we command ourselves and our truths and the issues we've worked so onerous for, it's so liberating and susceptible all at the identical time.”
Barrymore later defined to the Los Angeles Times that she doesn't use the “sober” trace because she doesn't need folks to convey she's “some supreme Puritan.”
“I saved pondering, ‘I'll master this. I'll figure it out,'” she acknowledged in 2023. “And at final, I lawful realized: ‘You've by no design mastered this, and likewise you by no design will.'”
Bradley Cooper
The A Indispensable person Is Born actor struggled with a cocaine addiction at some level of the early aughts sooner than pal Will Arnett stepped in and confronted him out about his habits.
“That used to be the first time I ever realized I had a convey with tablets and alcohol,” Cooper recalled at some level of a 2022 look on the Smartless podcast. “I'll lawful by no design fail to bear in mind it.”
Crediting Arnett as “the reason” he went sober, Cooper added, “He took that likelihood of having a onerous dialog with me that set me on a path of deciding to commerce my lifestyles.”
Brad Pitt
The Battle Membership monumental title spent years combating alcohol sooner than Cooper helped him secure sober. “I bought sober thanks to this man,” he informed the viewers at the 2020 Nationwide Board of Overview Annual Awards after Cooper introduced him with a trophy. “And each and each single day's been happier ever since.”
Ryan Phillippe
In September 2023, the Merciless Intentions alum shared on Instagram that this used to be “the longest I've gone since I used to be a teen with out some extra or much less nicotine or marijuana in my system (among various issues).”
“Feeling thankful for the freedom that comes with breaking addictions and dependency on substance,” he added. “Sobriety, readability, and non secular connectedness feels precise factual.”
Demi Lovato
After publicly celebrating six years of sobriety on tour in 2018, the singer unnerved fans later that very same yr with the unlock of the confessional single “Sober,” which published that she had relapsed.
“Mama, I'm so sorry I'm now not sober anymore / And Daddy please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the bottom / To folks who by no design left me / We've been down this twin carriageway sooner than I'm so sorry, I'm now not sober anymore,” she sang.
A month later, Lovato used to be hospitalized for a shut to-fatal overdose.
“I indubitably grasp frequently been clear about my poke with addiction,” she wrote on Instagram two weeks later. “What I've realized is that this illness is now not one thing that disappears or fades with time. It’s one thing I must continue to beat and grasp now not executed but…I now need time to heal and focal level on my sobriety and twin carriageway to restoration. The like you grasp all proven me may possibly presumably presumably possibly now not ever be forgotten and I now not sleep for the day the place I’m in a position to relate I came out on the various side. I could retain preventing.”
Jada Pinkett Smith
In 2018, she recalled combating her addictions to sex and alcohol. “My fabricate of addictions jump. They jump around. After I used to be youthful, I positively convey I had a sex addiction of some kind, sure, that everything shall be mounted by sex,” she acknowledged, sooner than sharing regarding the time she realized she'd developed a troubling drinking convey.
“I take into account reaching a rock backside that time I used to be in the apartment on my grasp and I had those two bottles of wine and used to be going for the third bottle,” she acknowledged. “And I used to be like, ‘Now lengthen. You're in the this apartment by yourself going onto your third bottle of wine? Which you can need a convey.'”
“So I went wintry turkey. That's the object about me: I’m in a position to move wintry turkey. I am a binger, and I frequently grasp to gaze myself and I’m in a position to lawful secure inquisitive about issues,” she endured. “It's now not what you're doing however the potential you're with it. Why you're doing it. It's the habits that's connected to it because in record so that you can grasp lots of sex, that's vast, however why are you having all that sex? That's what you've bought to search at.”
AJ Mclean
The Backstreet Boys member tried tablets for the first time sooner than filming the tune video for 2000's “The Name,” telling Most keen Morning The united states years later that he “used to be off the partitions” at some level of the shoot. He bought sober in 2021 and saw a monumental quantity of definite advantages lawful one yr later, in conjunction with shedding 32 kilos in seven months by lowering out alcohol and like a flash meals.
“Drinking brought on weight produce,” he informed Right this moment time in September 2022, “however it also weighed down my psychological notify.”
Bow Wow
After the unexpected death of Mac Miller, the rapper—born Shad Moss—took to Twitter to let his fans know that he'd once struggled with a cough syrup addiction.
“To the childhood- Stay with these uninteresting ass tablets,” he began his collection of tweets. “Im going to let one thing out. When me and Omarion worked on FACE OFF album. I used to be excessive off lean everyday! When yall saw me on BET going off on Torae i was excessive off lean. My attitude everything modified. My fans started to…Flip on me my family too. I by no design promoted lean in my songs. The total time i was on the UCP tour with Chris [[Brown]I WAS SIPPING 4's atleast 7 times a day. I used to be addicted unless our existing in Cincinnati.. i came off stg and handed out woke up in the health facility i was having withdraws.”
“I by no design felt a distress like that ever,” Bow Wow endured. “It used to be summer season however i was walking spherical with 3 hoodies on because i was so wintry. I omitted the chicago existing of that tour baltimore existing BECAUSE I WAS F–KING HIGH AND SICK!!!! that s–t is now not chilly and that i was doing it to be chilly! Kick that s–t! Be a factual son or daughter. Be the most effective you. Ima open being extra vocal. We gotta build the childhood from going out early. Folks gaze your children. Disguise to them. We need yall to stay man. I almost died f–king with syrup.”
“To on this day and age im affected my belly will…Never be the identical and it hasnt been. DRUG FREE IS THE WAY TO BE! smarten up tighten up out here,” he informed his fans. “We cant lose no extra of you. No longer one! I admire any yall. The younger artist your entire children around the arena.. dont observe a pattern. Damage the cycle. PEACE.”
Lily Allen
With the twin releases of her fourth studio album No Disgrace and memoir My Thoughts Exactly, the singer spent noteworthy of 2018 getting brutally precise regarding the head of her addition issues. Per Allen, she used to be abusing cocaine and drinking to the level of being “parisitically below the affect of alcohol. In a roundabout arrangement, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin staged an intervention after she unintentionally headbutted Orlando Bloom at Kate Hudson's Halloween birthday celebration and knocked herself out.
She informed The Guardian, “Nothing regarded to reach or fulfill me. I take into account waking up one morning in those darkish days pondering, ‘Per chance it's time for heroin, because nothing else is working.'”
Dennis Quaid
The Parent Trap actor battled a cocaine addiction for the length of the '80s that despatched him to rehab in 1990. As he later defined on Right this moment time, he grew up in the '60s and '70s when “there used to be a actually various attitude” towards the drug.
“It used to be even in some film budgets. I used to be fundamentally doing cocaine fine noteworthy on a everyday foundation at some level of the '80s,” he admitted in 2018. “I spent many, many an evening screaming at God to 'Please clutch this far from me and I'll by no design cease it once more, space off I've only bought an hour sooner than I indubitably must be at work.' Then at 4 o'clock in the afternoon I'd move, 'Oh it's now not so gross.'”
“I had what I name a white light skills the place I saw myself both needless or shedding everything that intended anything to me,” he endured. He needed to sit down down then-fiancée Meg Ryan and existing what used to be going on. Then, he sought again. “That used to be the cease of the like affair with me and cocaine.”
Ryan Lochte
After an incident in Newport Seaside the place the Olympic swimmer tried to kick in his grasp lodge room door, Lochte made the decision to search therapy in 2018. “Ryan has been combating from alcohol addiction for lots of years and sadly it has change into a harmful sample for him,” his acquire informed E! News in an announcement. “He has acknowledged that he desires legitimate aid to beat his convey and shall be getting again straight.”
“Ryan knows that conquering this illness now is a must for him to retain far from making future unhappy selections, to be the most effective husband and father he can be, and if he desires to full his purpose to return to dominance in the pool in his Fifth Olympics in Tokyo in 2020,” the assertion concluded.
Jason Ritter
Even though the Parenthood alum knows that “one in every little thing that you're now not supposed to full is secure sober for any individual else,” his relationship with now-spouse Melanie Lynskey used to be a essential reason that led him to swearing off alcohol.
“At a level, I knew how fantastic she used to be and I belief she will be able to be fantastic for somebody who deserved her,” he defined at some level of a March 2023 look on The Drew Barrymore Speak, “and I didn't indubitably feel like I used to be that person. I felt moderately bit too crazy.”
However, as Ritter illustrious to E! News, he now sees that sobriety is finally a personal substitute.
“It used to be more uncomplicated for me to explain that I'm doing it for her because, for the time being, I didn't indubitably feel like I used to be fabricate of worth noteworthy,” he recalled of the early days of their relationship. “I didn't care as noteworthy about hurting myself as I did about hurting her. So, in the beginning it used to be more uncomplicated for me to explain, 'I'm doing this for her.' And now, I'm doing it for myself.”
Brantley Gilbert
The nation monumental title has been sober for nearly a decade, however it used to be a onerous-fought twin carriageway getting there. His addiction to alcohol and distress capsules began quickly after graduating from excessive faculty and didn't abate when his profession began to take grasp of off. He saved a sad leather pc secure stuffed with bottles of Jagermeister or vodka “at arm's reach always,” he informed beforehand published to Folks, in conjunction with that for the length of the day, “each and each hour and a half of to 2 hours it'd be time to secure two or three factual pulls on the bottle. And each and each three or four hours it's time for a tablet or two.”
And it had no kind on his success. “It wasn't like I used to be stumbling around all day,” he admitted. “I used to be thoroughly functioning — I wrote extra songs then than I cease now. That used to be the upsetting fragment.”
In late 2011, he used to be hospitalized with pancreatitis and used to be informed that if he didn't discontinue drinking, he wouldn't survey his next birthday. “I tranquil set it off and used to be making an strive to late down on my grasp, like, 'All factual I'm only gonna let myself clutch two capsules this day. I'm only gonna drink this noteworthy of my bottle and make a trace on the bottle,'” he recalled. “And it would work a couple days—and then any individual throws a celebration.”
He finally sought again, coming into rehab on Dec. 18, 2011. “I bought to the level the place I knew it used to be one thing I couldn't cease on my grasp,” Gilbert acknowledged. “Pissed me off to no cease and embarrassed me. I'm a fine solid-willed person however that used to be the one thing in my lifestyles that I couldn't secure to stick.”
Source credit : eonline.com
