has no regrets about discussing his sobriety journey — despite some backlash from his Alcoholics Anonymous group.
Pitt, 60, revealed that AA wasn’t thrilled about him mentioning the program publicly.
“[Y]ou know they came down on me for that? AA did,” he shared in a new GQ profile published on Tuesday, August 13. “They were like, ‘It’s anonymous.'”
Pitt stood by his decision to address his issues with addiction, adding, “I’m not outing anyone. Everyone knows you exist. What’s the issue?”
The actor initially discussed his involvement with Alcoholics Anonymous during a GQ profile two years prior. “I don’t have that ability to do just one or two [cigarettes] a day,” he said in June 2022. “It’s not in my makeup. I’m all in and I’m going to drive into the ground. I’ve lost my privileges.”
Pitt credited AA meetings for helping him stay sober.
“I had a really cool men’s group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe,” he noted at the time. “Because I’d seen things of other people who had been recorded while they were spilling their guts and that’s just atrocious to me.”
According to Pitt, he quit drinking in 2017. The decision came after a 2016 incident on his family’s private jet led to a child abuse investigation. , who Pitt married in 2014, filed for divorce one week after the plane ride. Pitt was cleared by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services in November 2016.
Pitt, who shares kids Maddox, 22, Pax, 20, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16, with Jolie, 49, didn’t shy away about his journey to seek help.
“Personally, I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I’m running from feelings,” he told GQ in 2017. “I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that.”
Pitt continued: “I mean, I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know — things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s just become a problem. And I’m really happy it’s been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again.”
Pitt has since found love with girlfriend, whom he moved in with earlier this year.
“Brad and Ines have mastered the art of balancing Brad’s high-profile public life with their private relationship,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in July. “They enjoy low-key date nights that allow them to unwind and connect. They often cook together, and movie nights are another favorite.”
