
FOR THE longest time he’s been one of the genuinely good guys in Tinseltown.
He’s been married for more than 40 years, his kids are successfully paving their own way in showbiz, he hasn’t been involved in scandals and he’s the consummate professional at work.
Which is why it came as a shock to fans when Denzel Washington recently revealed he battled booze for decades and is now marking 10 years of sobriety.
“I’ve done a lot of damage to the body,” he wrote in an essay for Esquire magazine.
His tipple of choice was wine, not hard tack such as vodka or whisky – and that, he says, was part of the problem.
His issue with alcohol started in an almost deceptive fashion.
“Wine is very tricky. It’s very slow. It ain’t like, boom, all of a sudden,” he says.
He began indulging in the drink as a luxury treat. “I had this ideal idea of wine tastings and all that, which is what it was at first. And that’s a very subtle thing.”
Denzel has a wine cellar in his mega-mansion in Beverly Park in Los Angeles, which he bought in 1996, and it increased his appreciation of high-end bottles.
“I learned to drink the best. I was popping $4 000 [now R72 000] bottles – not because I needed them but because that’s what was left after finishing the cheaper wine.”
He would ask his staff to fetch “two of the best of this or that” from his cellar every day and his wife, Pauletta, once asked him why he ordered “just two”.
“I said, ‘Because if I order more, I’ll drink more’,” he recalls. “So I kept it to two bottles and I would drink them both over the course of the day.”
But his drinking was confined to his home life, he says, and he never drank while he was preparing for movies or plays. He didn’t even drink while filming the 2012 movie Flight, in which he played an alcoholic pilot.
This story is from the 19 December 2024 edition of YOU South Africa.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the 19 December 2024 edition of YOU South Africa.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In

ONE OF A KIND
She survived a violent stepfather and being raped by a bandmate as well as rampant showbiz sexism. Now as singer Cyndi Lauper heads off on her farewell tour aged 71, she just wants to have fun

TRUE TO HIS ROOTS
Rap icon Kendrick Lamar's recent Grammy haul has cemented his status as the king of hip-hop

RYAN'S ON A ROLLI
Ryan Rickelton has taken the cricket scene by storm, announcing himself as a force to be reckoned with

PARALYMPICS, HERE I COME!
He lost his left leg as a baby, but these days Nicklaas is a star on the athletics field and he's got big dreams

KEKE'S KICKING IT!
From child star to Hollywood powerhouse - Keke Palmer shines as an actress, podcast host and film producer

NEXT CHAPTER LOADING
Werner Wessels, the creative force behind many Miss SA winners, is stepping away from pageants to embrace new opportunities

BABY SHAME GAME
Lily Collins got a lot more than she bargained for when she announced she'd become a mom via a surrogate

BRIDGET'S BACK!
Renée Zellweger returns for the fourth and possibly final outing of Helen Fielding's ditsy cult heroine, a role she has relished from day one

I CAN BREATHE AGAIN'
After months of legal hell, two aneurysms and brain surgery, Alison Botha is relieved that her attackers are back behind bars and she can focus on getting better

SA IN TRUMP'S SIGHTS
With Elon Musk whispering in his ear the US president has unleashed his wrath on South Africa. But how worried should we be?