Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs asks fans not to congratulate him for being 22 years sober
Jason Isaacs has asked fans not to congratulate on being sober for 22 years, insisting, “It’s only ever one day at a time.”
The 57-year-old Harry Potter star paid tribute to his wife - documentary filmmaker Emma Hewitt - as he admitted that his drug and alcohol abuse had made their marriage unhappy.
Isaacs shared a picture on Instagram of himself and Emma from 1998, before he was sober, writing: “My beautiful wife Emma and I in Sep 1998 looking pretty happy. We weren’t.
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A post shared by Jason Isaacs (@therealjasonisaacs) on
“Three weeks later, on October 5th, 22 years ago today, I managed 24 hours without taking any drugs or drinking alcohol. I'd tried for decades, but was too smart, too capable and too successful to pull it off. Only when I admitted that I needed help did my life change.
“Thank you to every addict and alcoholic who's ever lifted me up. I love you all - especially the mad ones. Which is most of you. There’s a few 24 hours under my belt now, but it’s only ever one day at a time.”
Isaacs added on Twitter: “Please don't anyone congratulate me or tell me they're proud of me. I am and was useless by myself. Pride's the worst part. If you feel the desperate need to click, retweet it to let other people know there's a solution out there.”
Please don't anyone congratulate me or tell me they're proud of me. I am and was useless by myself. Pride's the worst part. If you feel the desperate need to click, retweet it to let other people know there's a solution out there.
— Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) October 5, 2020
The OA star - best known for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies - married Emma in 2001 after 14 years of dating. They have two teenage daughters, Ruby and Lilly.
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Jason, told The Big Issue in August this year: “I’ve always had an addictive personality and by the age of 16 I’d already passed through drink and was getting started on a decades-long love affair with drugs.”
He revealed: “I remember there being a moment, not long before I got clean, when it suddenly occurred to me that if everybody I knew died, literally every single person, I probably wouldn’t mind that much,' he said.
“In fact, I might like it, because then it would be an excuse to sit in a room by myself and take drugs and everybody else would say, 'Well you know, fair enough, you heard what happened didn’t you?"'
But Isaacs said once he sobered up he realised: “The drugs weren’t a way of dealing with that sense of distance the drugs were causing it.”
