Celeb Trainwrecks Who Got Their Acts Together

Ann Casano
Updated April 22, 2024 41.3K views 12 items

Meteoric rises usually lead to incredible falls; after all, having it all means that there’s more to lose. Sometimes when a movie star crashes, we never hear from them again. But this is a different narrative with a silver-lining, because there are stars who recovered from tough times. 

When video and pictures spread of Britney Spears shaving her head in 2007, it looked like the former pop queen had gone off the deep end never to return to the limelight again. However, after help from her father and rehabilitation, the singer made a full recovery and is currently one of the most bankable musical artists working today. Her Las Vegas residency show Britney: Piece of Me has brought in over $100 million in ticket sales.

Read about Britney’s story and other famous trainwrecks who are doing better. Not everyone can make a Hollywood comeback worthy of their own biopic, but these famous celebrity trainwrecks in recovery look like they have turned the page.

  • Britney Spears

    Britney Spears
    Photo: flickr / CC0

    Britney Spears burst onto the pop music scene in the late 1990s with "…Baby One More Time." While just a teenager, Spears shattered worldwide record sales and became the queen of pop. After a few more successful albums and years in the spotlight, Spears's behavior grew very erratic. There was the 2004 Vegas wedding to childhood friend Jason Alexander, which was annulled just a couple of days later. Then, the quickie marriage to Kevin Federline later in 2004. That marriage resulted in two children and a divorce two years later.

    Perhaps the most iconic image of Spears’s public meltdown came after she left a drug rehabilitation center in Antigua after just one day and shaved her head at a salon in Los Angeles. She went off to another rehab facility battling addiction and some form of mental illness. Spears lost custody of her two children in 2007. But she had not yet hit rock bottom. In 2008, Spears lost all visitation rights to her kids after she refused to give them back to Federline. She was hospitalized at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center on involuntary psychiatric hold.

    But her nadir turned out to be a turning point, not a point of no return. Britney’s father Jamie Spears stepped in and was given legal control of his daughter’s treatment. In 2013, Spears signed an extremely profitable deal to perform regularly in Las Vegas in a residency called Britney: Piece of Me, which has brought in over $100 million. She also got back into the studio making records. She regained visitation rights to her kids and even became a judge on the X Factor. Today, Britney is still performing and making records.

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  • Robert Downey Jr.

    Robert Downey Jr.
    Photo: Paramount Pictures

    The talented actor made his silver screen debut at the age of five in his father’s movie Pound. Downey would later say that he got his first taste of weed with his father when he was just six, and that harder drugs quickly followed. He would go on to star in a series of films while a teenager and earned a coveted Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Chaplin in 1992.

    However by the late 1990s, Downey was seriously addicted to drugs. He reportedly earned eight cents an hour cleaning kitchen pans at the LA County Jail, where he became a regular. He was arrested several times for cocaine and heroin possession and for carrying a gun. He also spent over a year in jail. In 2001, he was so despondent that he told a judge using drugs to him was, “like having a shotgun in my mouth with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of gun metal.”

    Faced with bankruptcy and out of second chances, Downey’s once promising career looked to be another wasted Hollywood cautionary tale. But then he meant Susan Levin in 2002. She told him that marriage was off the table unless he got sober and clean.

    Downey went back to work and signed on to appear in several films, including Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, A Scanner Darkly, and Zodiac. He was earning the reputation as a man who had conquered his vices. Then, in 2008 he signed on to play Iron Man. The move into the lucrative Marvel superhero world with all its sequels and spinoffs has made Downey one of the richest men in Hollywood after one of the greatest comebacks of all time.

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  • Drew Barrymore

    Drew Barrymore
    Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

    Drew Barrymore was just six years old when she appeared in E.T. in 1982. Her cuteness and natural talent captured the hearts of movie audiences everywhere. Barrymore would go on to have additional big screen success but got into a very adult scene very early. She claims to have had her first alcoholic drink at nine years old, and by 12, she was already addicted to cocaine. When she was just 13, she had already been in and out of drug rehab two separate times.

    Barrymore had lived enough of a dramatic life that by the time she was 14 the actress was able to write an autobiography called Little Girl Lost. She was able to quickly put her life together and went back to acting. In 1996, she re-entered A-List territory with her brief, but extremely memorable, role in Scream. Adam Sandler’s uber-popular rom-com The Wedding Singer followed, and Barrymore’s Hollywood comeback was official.

    Since then, the actress has been up and down in the romance department, having divorced from her third husband in 2016. But, on the upside, she has been out of the spotlight for drug abuse since her early teens. She even has her own production company, has two children, and made her directorial debut with Whip It! in 2009.

     

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  • Russell Brand

    Russell Brand
    Photo: Eva Rinaldi / Flickr / CC-BY-SA 2.0

    English actor and comedian Russell Brand first became widely known to American audiences in the hilarious romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008. However, trouble began for Brand even before his teen years. He said he believes he was bipolar but never got treatment for that specific ailment. At age 11, he also started having issues with bulimia.

    Brand said that the first time he took drugs, he wound up taking them every day for 11 years. He had issues with both heroin and crack. Brand lost several jobs because of his drug addiction. The most infamous firing came in 2001 when Brand was working as a video journalist for MTV. He got fired from the gig after showing up dressed like Osama bin Laden the day after the September 11 attacks.

    Brand also confesses to having a sex addiction. He was married to Katy Perry for two years but said that it's just easier for him to remain single. The actor was also arrested 11 times for various offenses.

    Brand's agent convinced him to get help. "They analyzed me and said: If you don't stop taking drugs now you'll be dead, in a mental asylum, or in prison within six months." Did that shock him? "A bit, but I also thought... yeahhh, that's cool, man," said Brand.

    Brand was able to get the help he needed. The Arthur actor has been clean and sober since 2002. He spends a lot of his time now as a political activist.

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  • Angelina Jolie

    Angelina Jolie
    Photo: Universal Pictures

    Angelina Jolie made her big screen debut at the age of seven, appearing alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 drama Lookin’ to Get Out. It then took a while, but the actress would finally breakout and draw rave reviews for her role in the 1997 TNT TV miniseries George Wallace and playing the titular role in HBO’s Gia. Big screen success bloomed and reached its peak when Jolie won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 1999’s Girl, Interrupted.

    But all the while, there was a darkness inside of Jolie that eventually worked its way to the public. "We had an exchange of something and we were covered in blood, my heart was racing. Then whenever I felt trapped, I'd cut myself. I have a lot of scars. It was an age when I felt adventurous and after a few beers things happened," Jolie said regarding her self-abuse.

    There were the times at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards in 2000 where Jolie and her brother puckered up for full all-out lip locks. She revealed in her Oscar acceptance speech: “'I'm so in love with my brother right now.”

    Jolie then married Billy Bob Thorton in 2000 after only two months of dating. Of course, they had an odd way of showing their love, including wearing vials of the other’s blood around their necks. They divorced in 2003.

    In 2005, she broke the hearts of Friends fans everywhere around the world when it was reported that Pitt was divorcing wife Jennifer Aniston. Angelina and Brad had apparently (Jolie initially denied the romance) fallen in love on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She was pregnant with Pitt’s baby just one year later.

    But then a funny thing happened. Jolie stopped being such a public weirdo. She became more and more recognized for her humanitarian work with displaced refugees, Doctors Without Borders, and Education Partnership for Children of Conflict (to name just a few). She and Pitt had six children together, three of whom were adopted. Jolie has also gone on to have a successful career behind the camera.

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  • Rob Lowe

    Rob Lowe
    Photo: NBC

    Rob Lowe burst onto the movie scene in the 1980s. He became one of the members of the iconic Brat Pack, starring in films such as St. Elmo's Fire, About Last Night..., and Youngblood. Lowe's career would take a major hit in 1988 when the actor became involved in a sex scandal. There was videotape evidence of Lowe having sex with a 16-year-old girl.

    Lowe told Piers Morgan that the sex tape scandal is what led the actor to get sober and that his recovery from alcohol abuse was life-changing: "Being in recovery has given me everything of value that I have in my life,” Lowe said. “Integrity, honesty, fearlessness, faith, a relationship with God, and most of all gratitude. It’s given me a beautiful family and an amazing career. I’m under no illusions where I would be without the gift of alcoholism and the chance to recover from it.”

    The actor has been sober since 1990. Surprisingly, the sex scandal did not entirely ruin his career. His sobriety combined with the support of his wife kept him on the path to success. Ironically, it was his comedic roles that helped to revitalize his career in the 1990s, with parts in Wayne's World, Tommy Boy, and the Austin Powers series. His Hollywood comeback was complete when he was cast as Sam Seaborn in the acclaimed TV drama The West Wing in 1999.

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  • Nicole Richie

    Nicole Richie
    Photo: NBC

    Nicole Richie became famous for two reasons. First, she is the daughter of pop superstar Lionel Richie. The second reason was because she became the sidekick of media-crazed Paris Hilton. Nicole and Paris ruled the tabloids in the mid-2000s and starred in the Fox reality show The Simple Life for five seasons. 

    During the second season of The Simple Life, Richie became noticeably thinner, but denied that she had an eating disorder. "It upsets me. I know I'm too thin right now. So I wouldn't want any young girl looking at me and saying, that's what I want to look like. I do know that they will, which is another reason I really do need to do something about it. I'm not happy with the way I look right now."

    Starting in 2002, Richie had several run-ins with the law. She was arrested for fighting at a New York City nightclub in October, although the charges were eventually dropped. In 2003, she was arrested for driving without a license and heroin possession. She would enter a rehab facility in Arizona and tell People magazine that she was much happier since she quit using drugs and drinking.

    But Richie would not stay sober. In 2006, she was charged with driving under the influence after witnesses saw her car enter a California freeway via the exit ramp. For all her offenses, Richie either received probation or a reduced sentence, even spending just 82 minutes in jail for the freeway incident. Richie completed a probation program and spent time at drug-rehabilitation hospital. Following this incident, she finally seemed to get her life together.

    She is currently married to Joel Madden, the couple have two children. Richie is also heavily involved in philanthropy. One of her causes is "The Richie Madden Children's Foundation," which supports mothers in need. Additionally, Richie also stars, and is actually quite good, in the NBC comedy sitcom Great News.

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  • Mark Wahlberg

    Mark Wahlberg
    Photo: Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY

    Considering Mark Wahlberg is currently one of the biggest movie stars in the world, it's hard to believe his criminal past. At 16 he was deep into gang culture, and repeatedly hit a Vietnamese man over the head until the victim was unconscious, all while yelling racial slurs at him. Later that same night, Walhberg attacked another Asian man, hit him in the face, and once again used racial slurs. The actor was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to two years in prison, however, Walhberg would only serve 45 days.

    Then when he was 21, the Ted actor fractured the jaw of his neighbor, by continually kicking the man in the head. This was determined to be an unprovoked attack. After spending time in jail, and watching several members of his family serve time as well, Wahlberg realized he never wanted to spend another day in prison.

    He turned to his parish priest for guidance and found the help he needed. Wahlberg first found success in music with his band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. He would make his silver screen debut in the Danny DeVito movie Renaissance Man in 1994 and would go on to impress critics playing opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries in 1995. Wahlberg's big time breakout performance came in 1997 when he played Dirk Diggler in PT Anderson's acclaimed drama Boogie Nights. Wallberg is now one of the most prolific actors in the world and a major Hollywood producer.

    Wahlberg credits his faith for having such a positive impact on his life. "I definitely go to church every day. That’s how I start my day – I like to get in there for 15 to 20 minutes and say my prayers." He added, "I pray to be a good servant to God, a father, a husband, a son, a friend, a brother, an uncle, a good neighbor, a good leader to those who look up to me, a good follower to those who are serving God and doing the right thing."

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  • Fergie

    Fergie
    Photo: Lossip / via Pinterest

    Fergie got her start in show business as the voice of Sally in Peanuts in the mid 1980s. She would go on to appear in the TV series Kids Incorporated from 1984-1989. She found her first real music success as part of the female trio called Wild Orchid.

    During a 2012 interview with Oprah, Fergie admitted that she started using drugs as a teen. She began with ecstasy and then moved onto crystal meth. Her addiction got so bad that at one point she only weighed 90 pounds.  She credits her turnaround from drug addiction on the church and God.

    "I started getting really paranoid. So I went one day into this church and I thought that the FBI and the SWAT teams were outside the church... so I had a conversation with God... and I said, 'Alright, if I go out there and the FBI and the SWAT team's not out there, then it's the drugs and I'm stopping,'" she continued. "I went outside of the church... and there was no SWAT team, there was no FBI, just me and God. And I kept my promise. That day. That was it."

    Of course, Fergie is best known as a vocalist for The Black Eyed Peas. The singer joined the band in 2003 for the group's third album Elephunk. Fergie has also found success as a solo artist.

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  • Charlie Sheen

    Charlie Sheen
    Photo: FX

    Charlie Sheen got an early taste of fame while still a teenager in films like Red Dawn and The Outsiders. In his 20s, he impressed movie fans and critics alike with his powerhouse dramatic performance in Platoon and the ability to play for laughs in Major League. He made a successful transition to the small screen with Spin City in the early 2000s, then hit an even bigger jackpot when he signed on to the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. Sheen would eventually become the highest paid actor on television, earning a reported $1.8 million per episode.

    But then his tiger blood began to boil. In 2011, Sheen made three unsuccessful tries at rehab. Then, he demanded more money and took public shots at Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre. His erratic behavior and bashing of his boss led to his termination and the beginning of a total public meltdown.

    There was the letter he sent to TMZ: “I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows … I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can’t handle my power and can’t handle the truth. I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon.”

    And perhaps the most famous interview of all on 20/20 where Sheen began to talk about the goddesses who had moved into his Los Angeles mansion: “We win so radically in our underwear before our first cup of coffee, it’s scary. People say it’s lonely at the top, but I sure like the view.”

    His ex-wife Brooke Mueller had seen enough and took away custody of their twins. This did not stop Sheen from continuing to talk about his tiger blood or Adonis DNA. Yet none of that really mattered to one cable network. In 2012, the actor signed a lucrative deal with FX to star in his own show, Anger Management. The series was picked up for 100 episodes and Sheen has more or less been out of the news since. He did come out as HIV positive in 2015.

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  • Demi Lovato

    Demi Lovato
    Photo: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

    The talented singer and actress started in show-business at a young age. As a teenager, she starred in the Disney movie Camp Rock and reached the top of the Billboard charts with the hit single "This Is Me." Over the next couple of years, Lovato would release two more hit albums and land the lead role in the Disney TV series Sonny with a Chance.

    Then the wheels started to fall off. Lovato punched one of the Jonas Brothers' female back-up dancers in the face while on a flight for the Camp Rock 2 tour. In 2010, she needed to enter rehab for "physical and emotional issues." These issues included treatment for alcohol abuse, drug abuse, bulimia, anorexia, and cutting. Lovato also discovered while she received treatment in 2011 that she was bipolar.

    The former Disney star has turned her life around since her diagnosis. She is now a mental health advocate. In 2016 she told People magazine: "If you know someone or if you’re dealing with it yourself, just know that it is possible to live well. I’m living proof of that."

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  • Amanda Bynes

    Amanda Bynes
    Photo: Kristian Dowling / Getty Images

    Amanda Bynes got an early start in show business at seven-years-old. When she was just 13, she had her own TV series on Nickelodeon called The Amanda Show. She would go on to appear in several movie roles in films such as Easy A and Hairspray.

    However, the wheels began to fall off in 2012. In just the span of a couple years, Bynes was charged with two DUIs, was involved in two hit-and-run accidents, and was forced to enter a mental health facility. She was also charged with "reckless endangerment, attempted tampering with evidence, and marijuana possession." That came after an incident where she allegedly threw a bong out of her 36th floor Manhattan apartment building after cops showed up.

    Her public meltdown reached an apex with social media. The actress took to Twitter and wrote a now infamous tweet to Drake: "I want @drake to murder my vagina."

    She also went after her own father: "My dad was verbally and physically abuse to me as a child," she wrote on her Twitter account. "He called me ugly as a child and then asked me if I wanted to have sex with him and i did not know how to respond and I said no and then I was forced to live with my dad which was a total nightmare."

    After five years out of the spotlight, Amanda recently sat down for an interview with Diana Madison. It appears like the All That actress is getting healthy and moving in the right direction. She says that she's been sober for three years, is back at fashion school, has a good relationship with her parents, and even wants to get back into acting.

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