Jason Isaacs Celebrates 27 Years of Sobriety from Drugs and Alcohol

Jason Isaacs has been sober from drugs and alcohol for 27 years.

The White Lotus actor, 62, marked the milestone on Sunday, Oct. 5 with a rare and lengthy Instagram postbeginning with candid reflection about the first time he was sober for an entire day in 1998 — and ending with a hopeful message.

Isaacs began, “27 years ago today the sun rose on the first 24 hours I’d had clean of drugs or alcohol in my entire adult life. I didn’t wake up that way because I didn’t wake up. I hadn’t been to bed.”

“To keep away from temptation and to avoid tearing up my floorboards (again), or searching every item of clothing (again) – both surprisingly fruitful over the previous days – I’d spent the entire night naked in a high street sauna with a procession of bemused cab drivers,” the Harry Potter alum continued. “I had no idea how long it would last but that morning, as I emerged blinking, pink and massively over-cooked, I felt something I hadn’t felt for decades. Hope.”

‘I’d got through one night. Who knew what was possible?” he recalled thinking. “One step at a time, one day at a time, sometimes one hour, one deep breath, or even one inhumanly large bar of chocolate at a time, it’s now 27 years.”

Isaacs went on to explain why he decided to make the candid post by answering the question: “Why am I telling you?”

“Because,” the actor wrote, “whilst l’ve given up using social media platforms to try to fight the worst excesses of human and political behaviour, though most of what I see magnified on here is hatred posing as purpose, prejudice disguised as virtue and, most importantly, the total absence of nuance that comes from mob-think, it’s just possible that you might be reading this and be unable to imagine, as I was, a different life for yourself.”

“So I’m writing to say that it’s possible,” he continued. “If you ask for help. You don’t have to do it the way I did, but however far gone you think you are, however irreversible you think your situation is, there’s always a way back. A way forward. A way back to the surface. Always. Just take the first baby step and surrender.”

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The star — who is married to Emma hewswith whom he shares two daughters — concluded by expressing gratitude to those who have supported him throughout his sobriety journey for nearly three decades.

“Thank you to everyone who helped and continues to help me try and stay sane in an insane world. Often just by laughing at me,” Isaacs wrote. “It’s not false modesty or humility to say that I couldn’t have done it without you – I tried doing it by myself for years and failed every single time.”

“I’m so grateful to be present in life, even for the awful things, the painful things, the scary things. I ran from them before and now, sometimes, not always, I run at them. I show up,” he concluded. “Good luck. You can do it. X.”

Several of Isaacs’ friends and former costars shared messages of support in the comments of his post, including his Abduction castmate Taylor Lautnerwho wrote, “Love you man thank you for sharing this.”

The actor’s on-screen sons in The White Lotus also commented on the post, with Patrick Schwarzenegger sharing a heart emoji and I am a level writing, “I love you Jase ❤️.”

Isaacs has opened up about his sobriety journey before.

In 2020, while reflecting on his past struggles with addiction with The Big Issuethe actor said, “I’ve always had an addictive personality and by the age of 16 I’d already passed through drink and was getting started on a decades-long love affair with drugs.”

“Every action was filtered through a burning need I had for being as far from a conscious, thinking, feeling person as possible,” he continued at the time. “No message would get through for nearly 20 years.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.