Why Anne Hathaway suddenly gave up drinking in her 30s

The actress also dished on her best beauty secrets, and what her 40s have held for her so far

Why Anne Hathaway gave up drinking
(Image credit: Getty)

In a recent interview, Anne Hathaway revealed why she gave up drinking in her 30s to help her health and her career - as well as some of the best beauty secrets she's learned over the years. 

As we shift towards a mentality of normalised sobriety in our culture, more and more people are coming out of the woodwork to reveal why they don't drink alcohol anymore - and Anne Hathaway is one of them. 

In a recent interview with People, she expressed why drinking wasn't beneficial to her. "In my 30s, I had to give up alcohol. I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't lead the life that I wanted while drinking," she said. 

Why Anne Hathaway gave up drinking

(Image credit: Isa Foltin / Contributor)

Some of Anne Hathaway's most incredible films came out during her 30s - notably, The Intern, Interstellar, Ocean's 8 (to name just a few). She says that, during her sober 30s, she learned even more about herself, especially in regard to what her body needed nutritionally. 

"In my 40s I'm finding I have to support myself differently nutritionally," she said.

"I want to go back and talk to my 25-year-old self who felt like she didn't have to do anything and just be like, ‘Oh honey, honey, there's a whole other world out there and it tastes like an avocado.’"

Overall, she wishes the rhetoric about aging would change, as she feels the subject is very personal. 

"Aging is just another word for living. And what you do with it from there is personal and up to you," she said. "I feel great — I feel better than I did in my twenties because I'm taking much better care of myself."

Why Anne Hathaway gave up drinking

(Image credit: Raymond Hall / Contributor)

She also candidly discussed what it was like for her to recover after giving birth to her two sons, Jonathan, seven, and Jack, three, - debunking the misconception that she just went right back to business as usual when her pregnancies were over. 

"People don't talk about this and it really made me feel better when I found out about it. It takes three years for your body to fully recover from a pregnancy. I didn't snap back. I want to be very, very clear about that," she said. 

She noted that it took her "every minute" of the three years in between and after her pregnancies to truly recover - and she's setting the record straight, telling women it's okay to take care of their bodies and not rush things. 

"With my second, it took every minute of those three years. Let your body be a body. There's nowhere to get to. It's just now. Be present and take care of yourself and don't set expectations," she said.

Madeline Merinuk
US Lifestyle News Writer

Madeline Merinuk is woman&home's US lifestyle news writer, covering celebrity, entertainment, fashion, and beauty news.

She graduated in 2021 with a B.A. in Journalism from Hofstra University, winning multiple student journalism awards, including a National Hearst Award, during her time there. After graduating, she worked at today.com, the digital site for the Today Show, where she wrote pop culture news and interviewed big-name personalities like Emily Ratajkowski, Haley Lu Richardson, Emma Corrin, and more.

Her personal interests, in no particular order, are: cheese, Joni Mitchell, reading, hot yoga, traveling, having multiple chapsticks in every handbag at all times, and dancing to ABBA songs as if she were in the Mamma Mia movies.