On February 15, Lucy Hale went on Instagram to share the news that on January 2, 2023, she had completed one year of sobriety. As she wrote in the post, her journey has “mostly been private”, so the information was quite a shock for her fans.
However, Lucy received tons of supportive comments, not only from her followers, but also from her PLL co-stars such as Troian Bellisario, Ian Harding, Sasha Pieterse, Tyler Blackburn, Shay Mitchell, Janel Parrish, and also from other celebrities like Demi Lovato, Lili Reinhart, and Lily Collins.
A week after sharing the news on Instagram, the actress explained more about her struggles with addiction and her journey on becoming sober during an episode of The Diary Of A CEO, a podcast hosted by British businessman Steven Barlett.
Growing up in Memphis, she started performing music in different places around the city. At the age of 13, the thought of acting started to appear, and, as described by her “[acting] was my way out”. That was when she found a small agent who told her to audition for Hannah Montana, and, as we all know, she didn’t book the role, however, this was her way in the acting business. So soon after, she went to LA with her mom, whom she described as her biggest fan.
She comments on not remembering much of her first years in the “city of angels”, since it was a period when she used to dissociate a lot, but mentions how her eating disorder was at its peak. Hale first talked about her struggles with food in 2012 in a Cosmopolitan interview, saying “I’ve never really talked about this, but I would go days without eating. Or maybe I’d have some fruit and then go to the gym for three hours. I knew I had a problem… It was a gradual process but I changed myself.”
During the podcast, the Aria interpreter told Steven how it all started even before moving to LA, at around 14 years old. At 17, after not knowing what was happening to her for many years, she finally got diagnosed with anorexia by a therapist. The star added by saying that her battle with an ED had its ups and downs, and how one of her ex-boyfriends helped her through it by enjoying food so much. She also mentions how things got worse with Pretty Little Liars, “It was like my life was now under a magnifying glass. I felt out of control. Guess we gotta control the way I look again. And then I’ll be enough, and then people will like me.”
The artist recalls her journey with addiction and how she used to believe she was her truest self while drinking, “I’ve been working on getting sober since I was 20. I’m 33”. Alcohol became a solution for her, a way to quiet her mind. Although knowing she had a problem, she never let it interfere with her job. Lucy’s decision to quit drinking in 2022 came from realizing she deserved more in life.
By the end of the podcast, Hale talks about her life post-Pretty Little Liars, and how having projects that were not such a success kept her more grounded. She also mentions starting a family and investing more in her self-discovery and self-healing journey as being her priorities now.
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The article above was edited by Giulia De Demo Assis
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