Denzel Washington Shares His 15-Year Struggle With Alcohol

• Denzel Washington has revealed his 15-year fight with alcohol.

• The star explained that his wine drinking began quietly but increased over the years, influenced by his big wine cellar.

• He noted that his collection became a way to indulge, leading him to spend on pricey bottles.

Hollywood star Denzel Washington has revealed his 15-year fight with alcohol.

In a chat with Esquire, he explained that his wine drinking began quietly but increased over the years, influenced by his big wine cellar.

He noted that his collection became a way to indulge, leading him to spend on pricey bottles.

The actor talked about trying drugs when he was younger but made it clear that he never became addicted to heroin or cocaine.

He identified his turning point as he neared 60, when he chose to stop drinking completely.

Now at 70, he is focused on his legacy and thinking about his future goals.

He said:

“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden.

“And part of it was we built this big house in 1999 with a ten-thousand-bottle wine cellar, and I learned to drink the best. So I’m gonna drink my ’61s and my ’82s and whatever we had. Wine was my thing, and now I was popping $4,000 bottles just because that’s what was left. And then later in those years I’d call Gil Turner’s Fine Wines & Spirits on Sunset Boulevard and say, Send me two bottles, the best of this or that.

“I’m sure at first it was easy because I was younger. Two months off and let’s go. But drinking was a fifteen-year pattern. And truth be told, it didn’t start in ’99. It started earlier.

“I’ve done a lot of damage to the body. We’ll see. I’ve been clean. Be ten years this December. I stopped at sixty and I haven’t had a thimble’s worth since. Things are opening up for me now—like being seventy. It’s real. And it’s okay. This is the last chapter—if I get another thirty, what do I want to do? My mother made it to ninety-seven”.