Child Stars Frankie Muniz and Miranda Cosgrove Both Don’t Drink, Both ‘Don’t Have a Good Reason’

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | December 22, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | December 22, 2023 |

Former Malcolm in the Middle star and current professional race car driver, 38-year-old Frankie Muniz, has “still never had a sip of alcohol.”

Muniz spoke about his accidental sobriety on Mayim Bialik’s podcast, Breakdown. Bialik, a former child star in her own right, asked, “Were you raised in a tradition that did not drink?”

“Every family member in my family drinks. And that’s what they do for fun,” Muniz replied lightheartedly. “I tried to figure out why I didn’t because I don’t have a reason. It wasn’t, like, a religion,” he said, instead saying he might come from his “hatred towards time.”

“When I was 15, 16 years old, I felt like I was so old. I had experienced so much. And I had experienced a lot in my life in comparison to most 15 and 16-year-olds. But even though I was in the entertainment business, I never saw it, meaning the drug use, any of that stuff. I somehow stayed away. I just went to set and did my thing.”

He’s never smoked pot either, because he “Grew up thinking the only people who smoked pot were criminals … on episodes of Cops.” But when he asked his dad about it, he told him “We smoked pot every single day, you just didn’t know.”

He said it was 18 the first time he was in a situation where he might be tempted, but “I had made it so long without it, I was like ‘Well, I’m not going to start now.’”

After that, it was people’s reactions to his not drinking.

“I couldn’t believe everyone’s reactions when I said I don’t drink … Everyone was either shocked or appalled that I didn’t drink … I was always kind of like, ‘It’s so weird that people have such a strong reaction to my not drinking … Like, who cares? I don’t care what you do. Why do you care so much about me?’ I don’t know if I made a conscious decision, but it just stuck with me that I was never gonna drink or do anything.”

Elsewhere in the podcastverse, former iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove, 30, told Josh Peck on Good Guys, that she’s “never been drunk” in her “entire life.”

“I truly don’t have a good reason,” she said. “I’ve never even been buzzed. I’ve sipped things before but like two sips.”

Like Muniz, she’s also never smoked anything, but she once ate a pot brownie and said it made her fall asleep for 17 hours.

“I think it started off because I was always the designated driver when I went out with my friends, and I sort of liked taking on that role and got used to it and just kind of stuck with it forever,” she explained.

But while Muniz plans to continue his sobriety, Cosgrove says she’ll probably drink eventually.