(CNN) — Cara Delevingne revealed that she has been sober for four months and says that “sometimes you need a reality check”.
“This process obviously has its ups and downs,” the 30-year-old British model and actress told Vogue while discussing her experiences with addiction and depression.
“People want my story to be like a teen show where I’m like, ‘Look, I was addicted and now I’m sober and it’s over.’ And it’s not as simple as that. It doesn’t happen overnight… For Of course I want things to be instantaneous — I think this generation especially, we want things to happen quickly — but I’ve had to dig deeper.”
Delevingne checked into rehab late last year, partly encouraged by photos that were taken by paparazzi at the Van Nuys airport in Los Angeles in September.
Showing her disheveled, the photos were a source of overwhelming embarrassment and a wake-up call, Delevingne told Vogue in an interview published Wednesday.
“I hadn’t slept,” he said, recalling that he had just returned from Burning Man after a summer of intense partying and was traveling to a work commitment. “It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point it was like, well, I don’t look good.”
“You know, sometimes you need a reality check, so in a way those images were something to be grateful for,” she said, adding in an accompanying video that the press attention “makes the whole cycle worse for people who they go through it.”
Delevingne is photographed for Vogue. Credit: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue
That moment, along with depression made worse by the covid-19 pandemic, the death of her grandmother, lifelong struggles with addiction — she recalled her first experience with alcohol abuse at age seven — and the recognition of her identity while filming “Planet Sex,” culminated in Delevingne seeking support and therapy.
After the photos were released, Delevingne says her friends supported her and that she committed to the 12-step program, a peer-to-peer support group first developed by Alcoholics Anonymous that involves surrendering to a higher power, whoever whatever form it takes.
“This time I realized that the 12-step treatment was for the best, and it was about not being ashamed of it,” she said. “Community made a huge difference. The opposite of addiction is connection, and I really found it in 12 Steps.”
Delevingne said she spent Christmas and New Years sober with her girlfriend, Leah Mason, “having a great time,” and has incorporated meditation and movement into her twice-daily yoga practice.
“I still have a lot of energy,” she said, “but it’s not erratic. I’m calmer. I’m steadier.”
Sharing the Vogue interview with her Instagram followers on Wednesday, Delevingne said in an accompanying caption: “Every story is important and this is mine. We are all human. Of course we will fall and make mistakes. We will go through some really hard stuff in life, but that’s how we get up again.
“To anyone still struggling, don’t give up, you’re not alone,” he added on Instagram.
