Model Cara Delevingne Details Early Drug Use and Addiction Struggle
Cara Delevingne has opened up about her experiences selling drugs as a teenager, a path that eventually led to a significant battle with addiction. The 33-year-old model revealed that her struggles intensified with ketamine use, stemming from experimentation that began when she was just 14 years old.
Delevingne shared these candid details in a recent episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper, detailing a tumultuous period in her youth and her subsequent fight against substance abuse. She explained that a lack of funds at the time prompted her to start buying drugs with the intention of selling them, a decision that quickly blurred the lines between dealing and personal use.
“Because I didn’t have money at that point, I started buying drugs to sell them and to do them,” Delevingne stated. “When I bought the drugs to sell, I just did them all by myself. Not all of them. I sold half of them, did the rest. So I basically did the drugs for free. Wasn’t a great drug dealer.”
Escalating Use and Mental Health Crisis
The allure of drugs, Delevingne explained, was their ability to provide an escape from personal difficulties. “I loved what drugs made me feel. I loved not having to think about my mom,” she said. “I loved not having to feel the pressure of not being good at school, not feeling good enough or loving myself. All of that went away.”
Her drug use escalated to a point where she began taking acid daily, leading to severe hallucinations and a profound detachment from reality. Delevingne recalled a particularly disturbing episode: “I thought that my dad was God and my mom was the devil and I had to kill her to save the end of the world. Like, I lost my mind.”
By the age of 15, her mental health had deteriorated to a critical point, marked by suicidal thoughts. “I just became suicidal. My whole world exploded and I was like, ‘I think everything I’ve thought for the last 15 years is wrong’. My brain was absolutely in turmoil. I would just try and knock myself out physically because I wanted to escape.”
A Turning Point and the Path to Sobriety
The model identified the Burning Man festival, coinciding with her 30th birthday in 2022, as a pivotal moment that solidified her commitment to sobriety. “I went straight to Burning Man. Then that happened and I was like, ‘I can get sober’,” she recalled.
Delevingne acknowledged previous attempts at rehabilitation, noting that they often focused on trauma but did not provide lasting change. “I’d been to rehab before but I’d focus more on trauma and then I’d kind of dip back into things.”
A profound realization struck her in a hotel room when a song played that was associated with a friend who had died from an overdose. “I really needed to do it. A song came on on shuffle when I was alone in this hotel room and it was a song that played at a friend’s funeral who died of an overdose. And in that one moment, I was like, ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this?’ And I threw all the drugs down the toilet.”
Public Scrutiny and the Importance of Connection
In September 2022, images circulated showing Delevingne appearing disheveled and agitated at Van Nuys airport, sparking public concern. She was observed walking in socks and engaged in a phone conversation while smoking. Another moment captured her near her dog, with a security member present. She was later seen leaving in an SUV, with her feet out the window.
At the time, sources indicated that Delevingne had just returned from the Burning Man festival, suggesting her appearance was due to the demanding conditions of the desert environment. “She had just spent days in the desert, not eating all that much and she looked disheveled because she hadn’t had time to scrub up yet…” an insider commented.
Reflecting on her journey in a previous interview with Variety, Delevingne emphasized the importance of open communication and self-honesty in recovery. “You’re not alone. If I can do it, anyone can. But you need to communicate and be honest about it as much as you can – especially with yourself,” she stated, encouraging others to share their struggles.
In a conversation with Vogue, Delevingne elaborated on her decision to enter a 12-step program in 2022. She contrasted this with previous, shorter-term healing methods, explaining, “Before I was always into the quick fix of healing, going to a weeklong retreat or to a course for trauma, say, and that helped for a minute, but it didn’t ever really get to the nitty-gritty, the deeper stuff.”
She concluded by highlighting the transformative power of community in recovery. “This time I realized that 12-step treatment was the best thing, and it was about not being ashamed of that. The community made a huge difference. The opposite of addiction is connection, and I really found that in 12-step.”
