Published: 01:42 BST, 13 August 2026 | Updated: 03:13 BST, 13 August 2026
Brad Pitt once claimed he could 'drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka'.
Although self-reflective at the time, it was a particularly unsettling statement, given that it came in 2017 just a year after the terrifying account of his drunken rage on board a private flight – which ultimately cost him his marriage and his family.
So, when Pitt, seven years sober, revealed this week that he was back on the booze, eyebrows were raised.
Is it possible for him to return to drinking sensibly?
'I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,' he told Esquire magazine, apparently even 'offering a little laugh', according to the interviewer.
After seven years sober, Brad Pitt revealed he was back on the booze this week (pictured pouring a glass of wine at the 2009 SAG Awards)
He sought help for alcoholism in 2016 after his drunken rage on board a private flight cost him his marriage to Angelina Jolie (pictured) and their children
He insisted that he now drinks 'in a more restrained manner', describing how he 'got over-confident a couple times, went, 'Yep, nope, not good for me.' Not in big quantities.'
He clarified that he can 'have a few' glasses of wine, but no more. 'I have to be professional about it.'
This week a source close to Pitt's camp told the Daily Mail that the star's return to drinking was a 'gradual process in recent years', as Pitt slowly figured out 'how he felt comfortable and what he felt was appropriate for him'.
'Friends had become more aware of it recently,' said the insider who added he drinks with pals and his girlfriend of four years, Ines de Ramon.
It's de Ramon, according to sources, who stops Pitt from having one too many and succumbing to the pull of addiction.
Pitt has been dating jewellery executive de Ramon, 33, since late 2022, with the elusive pair moving in together in Los Angeles before making their red-carpet debut at the Venice Film Festival in 2024.
It was only in July this year that the New Jersey native made her romance Instagram official, sharing several snaps of them at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding at New York's Madison Square Garden – where we are told Pitt was drinking.
