When Josh Brolin was asked to name the biggest difference between parenting his two older kids and two younger kids, he gave a very candid answer.
“Alcohol,” Brolin, 56, admitted on the Monday, March 4, episode of the “SmartLess” podcast. “I mean, that’s just the f–king truth, man.”
Brolin shares son Trevor, 35, and daughter Eden, 29, with ex-wife Alice Adair. He also welcomed daughters Westlyn, 5, and Chapel, 3, with Kathryn Brolin, whom he wed in 2016.
“I think it’s OK to say this even though it’s an anonymous program: my son’s sober, my daughter is married to a sober dude. My wife’s sober,” he noted.
After cohost Jason Bateman asked whether Josh’s family learned from his “mistakes,” the Dune actor replied, “Hopefully.”
“I think we were all pretty open,” he said. “It’s a very open dialogue with us.”
Josh entered rehab for substance abuse in 2013. The following year, he candidly explained his decision to receive treatment.
“It was another turning point,” he told The Guardian. “It made me think of a lot of things. My mom dying when I was in my 20s. All the impact that had on me that I hadn’t moved past; I was always such a mama’s boy. But I realized that I was on a destructive path. I knew that I had to change and mature. It was like I stepped back and saw the hamster wheel.”
In November 2021, Brolin celebrated eight years of sobriety in a lengthy post shared via social media.
“Sobriety is climbing in your truck for a 6am call after 8 years of sobriety and there being a card from your wife telling you how grateful she is for having made the decision to put it down and to live instead accompanied by a collage board of your children — what was created because of that decision,” Brolin wrote via Instagram. “And sobriety is when your children look at you and trust what they see (you can see it in their pupils, and the way they stand before you).”
When asked on Monday by cohost Sean Hayes whether he can recognize “the signs” in any of his kids that they may “repeat the same behavior,” Josh replied, “No, because I think mine was so extreme that it was definitely a warning light as opposed to, ‘Let me try and emulate that to see if I can pull that off.’”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
