- Jane Lynch, 61, opened up about her life-long experience with alcoholism.
- The actress began drinking as a teen, got sober in her 30s, and fell back into addiction five years ago.
- After around three years of drinking, she stopped: “The sober fairy said: ‘OK, I’m giving you one more chance.’ And it was over.”
Overcoming the thralls of alcoholism just once in a lifetime is quite the feat—and Jane Lynch did it twice. The actress, 61, says she was what most people would call a high-functioning alcoholic, likely because she started drinking as a teenager.
The tendency came from deep shame associated with her sexuality, she recently told The Guardian. And as much as she tried to bury it in acting, the feeling just kept bubbling up, so she’d turn to the bottle for a temporary rush.
“The first time you [have a drink], it’s like: ‘Ah, I found it. I feel happy in my body, this feeling of bliss. No one can say anything to me that would make me upset or feel badly about myself right now,’” she explained. “Before you know it, it’s not doing it for you. So for the most part, when I was in the throes of addiction, it wasn’t working. You end up chasing [that feeling]. And then if you’re not chasing that, what are you doing? Who are you? You have to really face this emptiness.”
The Glee star drank well into her 30s, and divorce only complicated things. She found herself lingering at the bar until wee hours of the morning and discovering vomit where she had no memory of dispensing it—until one day, she decided she was done: “a kind of magical lifting of my compulsion to drink” came over her, she said. And she joined Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
“I felt sorry for people who weren’t alcoholics: I just loved AA,” she recalled. “It was very much a gift; it was almost like I was struck sober.”
Decades passed, and Lynch went without one drop of alcohol—until five years ago. She believes she stumbled back into alcoholism truly out of boredom. Her career was booming, that familiar sadness was mostly gone. This time, the vice disguised itself as a hobby she thought she could handle.
“I became a connoisseur of wine in a way that only an alcoholic can," Lynch explained. "I went back into denial, after all those years of sobriety and self-knowledge. I fooled myself–I woke up one day and went: ‘I’m back.’ It took about three years. I’m telling people I’m drinking one glass of wine a night, and I’m drinking five.”
Suddenly, her days were spent waiting for the evening, when she gave herself permission to drink. “The rest of the day didn’t matter,” she said. “The only part of the day that really mattered was five o’clock.”
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That routine persisted for a while, and just like the first time she stopped, the cease was sudden. “The sober fairy said: ‘OK, I’m giving you one more chance.’ And it was over,” she recalled. “Five o’clock would come and I didn’t notice it.”
Needless to say, Lynch was grateful for another try and hasn’t taken it for granted. Last year, she married her partner Jennifer Cheyne, whom she dated in the early 2000s and reconnected with years later.
“[We] fell back together so easily and lovingly,” she told Parade in 2019. “We’re very different people now—we don’t have the same insecurities we used to have. We live very peacefully.”
If you or someone you know is suffering from alcoholism, find support and resources by visiting Lifeline and The Alcohol and Drug Foundation.
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