Macklemore has revealed that he relapsed on drugs during the coronavirus pandemic.
Appearing on the Armchair Expert podcast, the “Thrift Shop” rapper – real name Benjamin Hammond Haggerty – told host Dax Shepard that he’d related to a September episode where Shepard had talked about relapsing after 16 years.
“I really, really resonated with the episode where you talked about your relapse,” he said, admitting that he “cried” listening to Shepard talk.
“It was within two months of my Covid relapse and the disease of addiction is crazy… I have watched people in the [rehabilitation] programme get double-digit sobriety, enough time where that is their identity [and] there’s ego involved in that.”
He continued: “To get vulnerable and real, the beautiful thing about recovery is when we do that, it lets other people feel like they’re not alone and that they can actually open up and share about that s***. It made me feel, as someone that had relapsed again like a month or two before, that I’m not alone. It’s OK that I did this s*** again.
Macklemore said that he is still “proud” of his sobriety, explaining: “I’ve spent most of the last 11 years in recovery, and it’s made me who I am.”
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support:actiononaddiction.org.uk, mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.
