For many celebs, drug addiction is a hidden battle, one which they privately share with their loved ones. This had been the case for one such star, The White Lotus actor Jason Isaacs, who achieved sobriety after battling drug and alcohol addiction for over two decades.
Although he eventually shared his struggle with fans, the star first opened up to his wife, revealing a moment of vulnerability as he made a poignant request to her. The Harry Potter star, 61, has been happily married to Emma Hewitt, a former documentary filmmaker, since 2001 and shares two children together, daughters Lily and Ruby, born in 2002 and 2005.
Their love story began in the late ’80s, when they met as students at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Isaacs was born in Liverpool and raised in a working-class Jewish family. He later moved to London and studied law at Bristol University before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He began his acting career on stage and gained early screen roles in British TV dramas before breaking out in films like Event Horizon and The Patriot.
During his years in the spotlight, Isaacs revealed he had overcome a decades-long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, which traced the roots of his struggle back to the age of 12, when a bartender handed him and his friends a bottle of Southern Comfort.
The next morning, he woke up with a pounding headache, reeking of vomit, a large scab, and the shame of what he called having “utterly shamed [himself],” he told The Big Issue back in August 2020. He subsequently “chased the sheer ecstatic joy [he] felt that night for another 20 years with increasingly dire consequences”.
However, after overcoming his addiction, the dad-of-two opened up about the toll it had taken on his relationship, recalling an emotional moment he shared with his wife in the early days of sobriety.
“When I got clean,” he told the publication, “I remember my wife saying, ‘OK, at last, we can finally buy a home and we can have kids and get on with our lives.’ And I said, ‘Actually, darling, I’ve just met you. What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘We’ve been together for 10 years!’ ‘I know’, I said, ‘and I’m really sorry, but I feel like I’ve just been born, and we have to date and get to know each other. See if we get on. If we like each other. You’ve never known me straight’.”
He quipped: “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me to go and squat on a blender.” The actor went on to say he later asked her why she stayed, despite his being high or drunk for so much of their relationship. Her answer was simple: “She says she always knew. That she always loved who I really was and who I really could be. Risky!”
On Rob Brydon’s podcast, Isaac confessed that his addiction had been a way to escape deep-rooted discomfort within himself. “I always felt uncomfortable in my own skin, I always felt as if I was faking being with people, that they all seemed to be more comfortable,” he said.
“When we were all high, or drunk, or whatever it was, we were all in the same state; it was an equalizer. And I loved the equalizer.” He shared at the time that this didn’t impact his career, though it had on his life away from the camera. Jason shared: “Not only didn’t it get in the way of work, I was working at a very high level, on stage and on camera – my career was great.
“It was the personal life that wasn’t great. I haven’t taken drugs for 25 years. It’s one of those professions, it may be less tolerant now, I don’t see it now.” He later shared that through recovery, he’s found joy in the “simple happiness in simple things.”
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