10 Celebrities Who Lost EVERYTHING Due to Addiction

Celebrities Who Lost Everything Due to Addiction

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at 10 Celebrities Who Lost Everything Due to Addiction.

For this list, we’ll be looking at stars whose vices damaged their professional and personal lives. Some never fully recovered, but others have come out the other side of substance use disorder and their rut.

Which celebrity addiction stories resonate with you the most? Feel free to speak up in the comments.

Syd Barrett

Pink Floyd is considered one of the greatest rock bands ever. Sadly, the man who started it all was not there for the takeoff. Syd Barrett established the band's experimental sound with the aid of LSD. Such hallucinogens also compounded, if not induced his schizophrenia. In 1968, as Barrett grew unstable and catatonic, Pink Floyd remorsefully kicked him out. His physical and mental health collapsed from there. The band didn't even recognize the man they wrote "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" for when he attended a recording session. Music royalties may have ensured financial stability for Barrett from his retirement at age 28 to his death at 60. But the very drugs he believed were helping his career abruptly destroyed it.

Bam Margera

Pro skateboarder-turned-pro prankster Brandon "Bam" Margera has experienced some hilarious self-destruction with the "Jackass" crew. His more painful antics have mostly been off-camera. Margera's infamous alcohol use disorder has long strained personal life and threatened his health, even by "Jackass" standards. It wasn't until 2009 when he finally entered rehab. He has since undergone treatment at least seven times, escalating his substance use as his relationships imploded. He at least had the old crew, until his volatile behavior got him fired off of "Jackass Forever." His public image is now dominated by belligerent social media rants and custody battles. No matter how many stunts Margera bounces back from, he still struggles to recover from his most dangerous ailment.

Matthew Perry

The world fell in love with Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing on “Friends.” But a jet-skiing accident led to a painkiller use disorder and by the early 2000s, he was excessively using substances. He even suffered a serious hand injury from playing video games. The substance use visibly fluctuated his weight and nearly killed him several times. Despite his strict rule to never drink on the job, Perry has forgotten years of filming “Friends,” and became reclusive following the end of the show. After spending millions in rehab and medical treatment, Perry has been sober since 2021. Still, he knows there’s a long way to go with his recovery.

Lindsay Lohan

A whole generation remembers Lindsay Lohan as one of the defining teen idols of the early 2000s. She's just as well-known for her substance use disorder. Lohan had her first overdose at 18 and began fighting her alcohol use disorder when she was barely old enough to legally drink. After multiple arrests and three rehab stints just in 2007, her career imploded. She took multiple breaks from her declining work and public image, though the spotlight was never too far from her scandalous episodes. But after one 90-day stay at a treatment facility, Lohan announced that she was in recovery in 2013. She is now rebuilding her career and enjoying married life, a role model once again to those with similar afflictions.

Charlie Sheen

Ever since his substance use disorder was confirmed at age 23, Charlie Sheen’s personal life and public image have been fouled by his antics. His acting career, however, seemed unstoppable. Underneath his iconic bad boy image was a tragic struggle with alcohol and substance use, even after an overdose-induced stroke and ruined relationships. But in the 2010s, Sheen’s behavior and ego finally got the better of him. His bizarre outbursts cost him his high-paying role on “Two and a Half Men” and reduced his career mostly to self-deprecating cameos. After that, he became serious about his recovery, and has been sober since 2017. He still has a lot of work to do on his career with his past reputation and ongoing scandals.

Anna Nicole Smith

Supermodel-actress Anna Nicole Smith may be more famous for her tabloid magazine appearances. Her lengthy legal battle for late husband J. Howard Marshall’s fortune was partly undercut by her financial irresponsibility. Smith spent a fortune of her own on alcohol and prescription pills. This substance use disorder was intensified by her son’s own death by overdose. In 2007, Smith died from a combination of nine different drugs. Her legacy has since been as consumed by vice as her life was. Smith is still mourned as a victim of exploitation that enabled her afflictions. Her boyfriend and psychiatrist were eventually convicted of conspiring to overprescribe her. However much agency Smith had in her disorder, she sadly didn’t have much over it.

Steve Howe

From 1980 to '82, Dodgers pitcher Steve Howe was one of the most decorated rookies in Major League Baseball. In '83, he checked into rehab for his alcohol and substance use disorder. From there, he suffered multiple relapses and seven suspensions before he was banned from baseball for life. Though he successfully contested this ban, his fading skills led to him retiring from an independent team. Howe himself said that his life was ruled by his disorder. As openly as he pursued recovery, many now feel that the league should have done more to help than keep him from the game he loved. In 2006, at age 48, Howe died in a single-car accident with stimulants in his system.

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse was one of the 2000s’ most distinctive voices in mainstream soul and jazz. It was never a secret that she suffered from a chronic alcohol and substance use disorder. Her signature song was about refusing to attend rehab. But by the end of the decade, everyone was shocked at Winehouse’s emaciation and diminished lung capacity. Between her escalating hostility and inability to perform, many fans responded with resentment. Still, Winehouse just kept going, until alcohol poisoning delivered her to music’s notorious 27 Club. Those intimately acquainted with Winehouse’s mental health issues knew she was ashamed of her affliction and planned to eventually get clean. Whether anyone had the power to help, her fans could only see one of the most devastating self-destructions in modern music.

Elvis Presley

The King of Rock n’ Roll popularized one of modern music’s defining genres. Alas, he also helped popularize the rock n’ roll lifestyle. Though Elvis Presley was a staunch opponent of narcotics, he developed a prescription use disorder following pain treatment in 1967. He was also uniquely obsessed with unhealthy food. In ten years, one of the world’s leading male sex symbols put on nearly 200 pounds. As his health plummeted, he became more aggressive, alienating everyone but his manipulative manager Colonel Tom Parker. Presley’s downward spiral ended with him dying of cardiac arrest, at age 42 and 350 pounds. For all the theories surrounding Presley’s death and possible survival, no one is debating that the King fell under overwhelming pressure and substance use disorder.

Whitney Houston

Affectionately dubbed "The Voice," Whitney Houston is considered one of the all-time great pop singers. She's also considered one of the most tragic for her substance use disorder to cope with stardom and personal issues. The public first became aware of this after Houston married Bobby Brown, then introduced him to cocaine. The couple spent their marriage enabling each other. Brown eventually got clean, but not before his ex-wife drowned in a hotel bathtub in 2012 with five different substances in her system. Houston had entered rehab only twice, downplaying the problem that corrupted her image and domestic life. The voice that made her a legend was also deteriorating. Houston remains a legend all the same, but with a legacy haunted by ailments.