Jamie Lee Curtis celebrates 25 years of sobriety: ‘One day at a time’

Jamie Lee Curtis is celebrating an important milestone: 25 years of sobriety.

The Oscar winner, 65, recently took to Instagram to mark more than two decades of sobriety. “25 years clean and sober. One day at a time. 9,125 of them,” she captioned a black and white image of herself holding a ring, which was inscribed: “JLC TWENTY FIVE”.

“What’s inside, as my old friend Adam sang, is a sense of calm, serenity, purpose and the greatest feeling that I am not alone. That many others share the same disease and solution,” Curtis continued.

The Halloween actor also shared a poignant message to “all those struggling with addiction and shame,” as she reminded them that “there are others out here who care”.

“My hand in yours. Our hands in yours. XO JLC,” Curtis concluded.

Many fans and followers congratulated the Everything Everywhere All at Once star on marking 25 years of sobriety in the comments section. “You are inspiring in so many ways, Jamie. Thank you for the gift of sharing your well earned 25 chip,” wrote fellow actor Mary Steenburgen.

Maria Shriver commented, “Bravo,” while Michelle Pfeiffer simply left three raising hands emojis.

Curtis has previously been open about her struggles with addiction. In an interview with Variety’s “Recovery Issue” in 2019, the Freaky Friday star said her first experience with drug addiction occurred when she was prescribed Vicodin - a medication that contains an opioid and is used to treat severe pain - in 1989 after minor plastic surgery for her “puffy eyes”.

“I went and had routine plastic surgery to remove the puffiness,” Curtis said. “They gave me Vicodin as a painkiller for something that wasn’t really painful.”

She described finding herself taking up to five Vicodin at once and washing it down with alcohol. However, Curtis noted her addiction was “wildly controlled” because she never took pills while at work. “I never took drugs before 5pm. I never, ever took painkillers at 10 in the morning,” Curtis said. “It was that sort of late afternoon and early evening - I like to refer to it as the warm-bath feeling of an opiate. It’s like the way you naturally feel when your body is cool, and you step into a warm bath, and you sink into it. That’s the feeling for me, what an opiate gave me, and I chased that feeling for a long time.”

The True Lies star has a family history of addiction. Her father, actor Tony Curtis, struggled with alcohol, cocaine and heroin. Her half-brother, Nicholas Curtis, died from a heroin overdose in 1994. Speaking to Variety, Curtis revealed that she once took drugs with her father. “I knew my dad had an issue because I had an issue and he and I shared drugs,” she said. “There was a period of time where I was the only child that was talking to him. I did cocaine and freebased once with my dad. But that was the only time I did that, and I did that with him.”

Curtis became sober from opiates in 1999 after reading and relating to Tom Chiarella’s article about his addiction to Vicodin in Esquire. “He wrote about how he didn’t know where his marriage certificate or his daughter’s birth certificate were, but that he knew where every Vicodin was in his house. There were two in the tip of his left cowboy boot, one under the bill of his Cubs cap,” Curtis recalled to AARP in 2021. “And I recognised all the secrecy and the obsession and that was me.”

To mark 22 years of sobriety, the Knives Out star shared an old photo of herself holding a glass of alcohol, with a caption that began: “A LONG time ago… In a galaxy far, far away… I was a young STAR at WAR with herself.”

“I didn’t know it then. I chased everything. I kept it hidden. I was as sick as my secrets,” Curtis said. She thanked those who helped her get sober, adding: “To all those struggling and those who are on the path… MY HAND IN YOURS.”

Curtis founded the online shop My Hand in Yours in 2020, which offers comfort items for people who may be going through a hard time. All proceeds from sales are donated to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: mind.org.uk, actiononaddiction.org.uk, mentalhealth.org.uk, samaritans.org.

To find support for drug addiction near you, visit the website for Frank. You can also call the charity’s 24/7 helpline on 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or send an email.