Cara Delevingne says drug addiction began at 14 before finding sobriety
Cara Delevingne “loved what drugs made me feel”.
The model, actor and now singer, 33, made the admission in a new interview as she spoke candidly about her past struggles with drug addiction, revealing she began experimenting with substances as a young teenager and sold drugs to fund her own use before eventually seeking sobriety through a 12-step recovery programme.
Discussing on the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper how her substance use developed, Delevingne said: “Because I didn’t have money at that point, I started buying drugs to sell them and to do them.
“When I bought the drugs to sell, I just did them all by myself. Not all of them. I sold half of them, did the rest.
“So I basically did the drugs for free. Wasn’t a great drug dealer.”
Delevingne said ketamine became one of her biggest problems after she began experimenting with drugs at the age of 14.
She said: “I loved what drugs made me feel. I loved not having to think about my mom.
“I loved not having to feel the pressure of not being good at school, not feeling good enough or loving myself. All of that went away.”
Delevingne also described a period during which her drug use escalated dramatically, leading to severe hallucinations.
“I thought that my dad was God and my mom was the devil and I had to kill her to save the end of the world. Like, I lost my mind.”
She also revealed her mental health deteriorated significantly during her teenage years.
“I just became suicidal. My whole world exploded and I was like, ‘I think everything I’ve thought for the last 15 years is wrong’.
“My brain was absolutely in turmoil. I would just try and knock myself out physically because I wanted to escape.”
Her comments come after several years of publicly addressing addiction and recovery, after concern over now infamous photographs showing her looking jittery and dishevelled at Van Nuys Airport in California in 2022 – the year she changed her life by checking herself into a 12-step programme.
The comments echo previous interviews in which Delevingne has discussed addiction, depression and recovery.
Speaking to Vogue about her decision to enter rehab in 2022, she said previous attempts to address underlying trauma had not produced lasting results.
“Before I was always into the quick fix of healing, going to a week-long retreat or to a course for trauma, say, and that helped for a minute, but it didn’t ever really get to the nitty-gritty, the deeper stuff.
“This time I realised that 12-step treatment was the best thing, and it was about not being ashamed of that.
“The community made a huge difference. The opposite of addiction is connection, and I really found that in 12-step.”
During her new podcast interview, Delevingne described attending the Burning Man festival in 2022 as a pivotal moment in her recovery journey.
“I went straight to Burning Man. Then that happened and I was like, ‘I can get sober’,” she said.
“I’d been to rehab before but I’d focus more on trauma and then I’d kind of dip back into things.”
Delevingne also recalled a moment alone in a hotel room that prompted her to stop using drugs.
“I really needed to do it. A song came on on shuffle when I was alone in this hotel room and it was a song that played at a friend’s funeral who died of an overdose.
“And in that one moment, I was like, ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this?’ And I threw all the drugs down the toilet.”
Last year, speaking to Variety about sobriety and recovery, Delevingne encouraged others facing similar struggles to seek support.
“You’re not alone,” she said.
“If I can do it, anyone can. But you need to communicate and be honest about it as much as you can – especially with yourself.
“I think that’s what I’ve always done with anything in this business. Whether it’s been being vocal about anxiety, depression, recovery, anything, it’s just you owe it to people to talk about your struggles.
“Because being in this world is not perfect. No one is perfect. So to be honest, it’s the least I can do.”