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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment

Jason Isaacs thanks ‘every addict and alcoholic who’s ever lifted me up’ as he celebrates sobriety

Jason Isaacs has thanked “every addict and alcoholic who’s ever lifted me up” after celebrating his sobriety.

The Harry Potter star, 57, said his life “changed” 22 years ago, after he admitted he needed help.

Posting a picture on Instagram, he wrote: “My beautiful wife Emma [Hewitt] and I in September 1998 looking pretty happy. We weren’t.

“Three weeks later, on October 5th, 22 years ago today, I managed 24 hours without taking any drugs or drinking alcohol.

“I’d tried for decades, but was too smart, too capable and too successful to pull it off.”

The British star, who played Lucius Malfoy in the boy wizard film series, wrote: “Only when I admitted that I needed help did my life change. Thank you to every addict and alcoholic who’s ever lifted me up. I love you all – especially the mad ones. Which is most of you.”

He added: “There’s a few 24 hours under my belt now, but it’s only ever one day at a time.”

Isaacs and his wife, a documentary maker, began dating in the late 1980s. They got married in 2001 and have two daughters.

The actor previously opened up about his struggle with addiction in a piece written for The Big Issue.

"By the age of 16 I'd already passed through drink and was getting started on a decades-long love affair with drugs," he wrote, before explaining that in recovery, he has learnt to find "simple happiness in simple things."

With reporting by Press Association

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