Jeremy Allen White got sober two years ago after he came "really close to losing everything".
In late 2023, it was reported that The Bear star had agreed to undertake nearly-daily sobriety tests and attend regular Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings as part of his custody agreement with his ex-wife Addison Timlin.
White and Timlin, who share daughters Ezer, six, and Dolores, four, got married in 2019, and the actress filed for divorce in May 2023, although she listed their date of separation as September 2022.
During an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, the 34-year-old shared that he celebrated two years of sobriety in May this year as he opened up about what led to that decision.
Noting he was "hesitant" to speak about his marriage, the Shameless star said, "I was just really close to losing everything. I was not going to see my kids as much as I wanted to. Who knows if I'll be able to show up for work and my parents and friends. I was risking it."
He added, "At the core of it (his decision to get sober) was my kids and showing up for them."
Shedding light on his earlier relationship with alcohol, White confessed that he was "self-medicating" to cope with anxiety, but it was "lonely" and he experienced "periods of shame and guilt".
White, who was on Shameless from 18 to 30 years old, also admitted he was hard to be around "for a long time" after the show ended because of his anxiety and "catastrophic thinking".
"When Shameless ended, I was a very difficult person to be around," he shared. "Because I was scared, you know, I'd had 11 years of stability, I had a family outside of my now-new family, and I was walking into the unknown for the first time in a very long time."
Revealing how his anxiety reared its head on his last day, he continued, "I remember doing my last ADR (dialogue recording) session at Warner Bros. for Shameless... I started having a panic attack and I had to pull (the car) over on the side of the road because my arms went all kind of numb and tingly and my neck started feeling very tight, and chest."
White didn't have to worry about job instability for too long, as he has been starring in The Bear since 2022.
He is believed to be dating his co-star Molly Gordon.
