Rob Lowe Marks 33 Years of Sobriety With Shirtless Selfie

Rob Lowe marked the milestone of 33 years of sobriety this week, sharing an image worthy of an inspirational office poster on his Instagram. In the photo, the shirtless Lowe is submerged in the ocean up to his collarbone, a sunset beaming through clouds behind him. 

“[Thirty-three] years ago today I found recovery and a tribe that has sustained me on my incredible, grateful journey,” Lowe captioned the pic. “My life is full of love, family, God, opportunity, friends, work, dogs and fun. If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction: hope and joy are waiting if you want it, and are willing to work for it!” 

Lowe’s struggle with alcohol peaked in the late ’80s, after he’d broken out with a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders. While promoting his 2011 memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Lowe told NPR that beer was provided on the Outsiders set, even to underage actors. 

Soon enough, Lowe told NPR, drinking had become a major part of his life. “Without even knowing it, it became just a big part of my life to the point where…I decided that I needed to go and get help,” he said. His troubles hit the national spotlight when a tape of Lowe having sex with an underage girl and a woman surfaced. The incident happened while Lowe was attending the 1988 Democratic National Convention to support Michael Dukakis. Lowe, who denied knowing the girl was underage, settled a lawsuit with her family and was not charged with a crime. He once called the sex tape “the best thing that ever happened to me,” due to that scandal’s role in forcing him to change his life. Just less than two years later, he entered rehab. “It got me sober,” he said.

“One of the great gifts of recovery is that you start living your authentic life. You start living your actual values and living as who you truly are,” Lowe told Variety in 2021. His true rock bottom, he told the magazine, actually came when he got a phone call from his mother. 

“My mother called me, and I could hear her voice on the answering machine. I didn’t want to pick up because I was really, really hungover and I didn’t want her to know. She was telling me that my grandfather, who I loved, was in critical condition in the hospital and she needed my help,” he said. “And I didn’t pick up. My thought process in that moment was, I need to drink a half a bottle of tequila right now so I can go to sleep, so I can wake up so I can pick up this phone.”

Lowe has been a Hollywood mainstay over the decades with roles on shows like The West Wing, Parks and Recreation, and more. More recently, he has worked on projects with his sons, including a reality mystery-investigating show. He’s costarred on the show Unstable with son John Owen Lowe and has compared seeing Prince Harry in his neighborhood to spotting the Loch Ness Monster. He hosts a podcast called Literally! as well, where he covers “the thoughtful to the extremely random.” He is also not afraid to make a pun on his own name, recently sharing some #sponcon that declared him to be “Lowe Carb” via a Barbie movie meme, proving that life is truly full of highs and Lowes.