Lucy Hale Says ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Was Her ‘North Star’ While Struggling with Alcoholism

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 13, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 13, 2024 |

Lucy Hale first started opening up about her struggles with alcoholism and her journey to sobriety last year, when she admitted that she started drinking at a young age and went to rehab for the first time when she was 23, while she was filming Pretty Little Liars. Now, she’s been sober for nearly three years and will be honored this weekend with “the Humanitarian Award at the 34th annual awards luncheon at Friendly House, an L.A.-based addiction recovery center.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

“When I got sober, my intention was never to be the poster child of sobriety,” Hale recently told PEOPLE. “But when I began speaking about it, it came from a place of needing to heal and take my power back.” She says her sobriety is still sometimes “painful and uncomfortable,” though.

“I still have to make the choice every day like, ‘OK, today I’m staying sober and today I’m choosing me,’ but that goes deeper than just not drinking,” she explained. “I can’t believe I’m at a place in my life where I can talk about the things that used to bring me so much shame.”

She also says her fame and career as an actor ultimately played a part in saving her.

“Without my career and without that creative outlet, I don’t know if I would’ve made it,” she said, referring specifically to her best-known work, PLL. “I think that show and my love of what I do was my North Star truly, it really gave me purpose, and still gives me purpose. But I was constantly in this cycle of extreme depression and anxiety while having to show up to work and be on. And that ‘being on’ fueled even more drinking…I was caught in this cycle that I couldn’t get out of.”

This is a conversation that comes up a lot with celebrities who struggle with addiction, especially those who started acting or became famous at a young age. Hale adds an interesting layer that doesn’t always get air time: fame is pressure, yes, but it can also be purpose.