Anne Hathaway opens up about sobriety journey and discusses 'milestones' in her 40s
Anne Hathaway has revealed she doesn't believe in "milestones" that come with certain ages, as per her latest interview, and doesn't really reflect much on the prospect of turning 40.
The actress, who turned 40 in November 2022 (and is now 41), spoke with The New York Times about finding the idea of entering her 40s not particularly remarkable.
When asked what she thought of the idea of hitting a "middle age" per se, she responded: "I don't take it that seriously. There are so many other things I identify as milestones."
She mentioned her journey with sobriety, which she keeps more private, adding: "I don't normally talk about it, but I am over five years sober. That feels like a milestone to me."
"Forty feels like a gift. The fact of the matter is I hesitate at calling things 'middle age' simply because I can be a semantic stickler and I could get hit by a car later today. We don't know if this is middle age. We don't know anything."
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Anne further spoke about the concept of treating each day as if it were her last, saying: "As a formerly chronically stressed young woman, I just remember thinking one day: You are taking this for granted."
"You are taking your life for granted. You have no idea. Something could fall through the sky, and that would be lights out. So when I find the old instincts rising, I just tell myself, 'You are not going to die stressed.'" She surmised that drinking was "probably" her way of dealing with her stress and not feeling comfortable in her own skin.
In a previous interview with Vanity Fair, she expanded more upon the idea of giving up drinking over five years ago. "I knew deep down it wasn't for me. And it just felt so extreme to have to say, 'But none?' But none."
The star continued: "If you're allergic to something or have an anaphylactic reaction to something, you don't argue with it. So I stopped arguing with it."
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She explained that none of this came from a place of just thinking it was the "right" thing to do, rather that it just personally mattered. "It's a path everybody has to walk for themselves."
"My personal experience with it is that everything is better. For me, it was wallowing fuel. And I don't like to wallow. The thing that I have faith in is that everybody else is going to have one or two drinks, and by the time everybody gets to two drinks, you'll feel like you've had two drinks – but without the hangover."
Anne emphasized that she felt much better about herself now than when she was much younger and was taking better care of herself and her physical and mental health.
"I make a lot of my lifestyle choices in service of supporting mental health," she said. "I stopped participating in things that I know to be draining or can cause spirals," adding: "I actually don't have a relationship with myself online."
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