Josh Radnor gained superstar status through his marquee role as Ted Mosby in the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother. For 9 seasons, Radnor’s Ted Mosby and friends kept audiences fervently waiting to see how he would reveal his love story to his children. But the series that became a sensation with fans, led to a tumultuous time for the lead actor in his personal life.
Radnor’s celebrity status saw him succumbing to the deadly vice of alcohol that affected many actors in Hollywood including Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, and Robert Downey Jr. The star revealed the struggles he faced during this period, and his eventual decision to get sober and get his life back on track.
Josh Radnor Struggled With Alcoholism After Becoming A Huge Sitcom Star
Fame is a funny thing. It leads to actors experiencing incredible highs while also plummeting them to desperate lows. Josh Radnor faced both sides of this coin when he achieved superstar status through his hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother. While the celebrity became a huge fan favorite following his role as Ted Mosby, his success became a double-edged sword when it led him down the path of alcoholism.
Speaking candidly about these personal challenges he faced, to GQ, Radnor revealed the dangers of fame and how it could easily influence anyone to take questionable decisions in their personal life. He spoke of how he eventually realized that this vice would destroy his life permanently if he didn’t tackle it in time.
For the first year or two of How I Met Your Mother, I was like, ‘Well, I guess this is what guys in my position do.’ And it left me feeling really empty, and more than a little depressed. I had to reassess my relationship to alcohol, which is ongoing—I’ll go through years of not drinking, and then I’ll see if I like it again. And generally, I decide my life is better without it than with it.
The actor also revealed that he took a conscious call to stop swearing when speaking to people. This move he admitted, added a whole lot of positivity to his life and made him a better person.
Josh Radnor Can Take Heart From Robert Downey Jr.’s Miraculous Recovery From Addiction
While Josh Radnor may have felt a sense of hopelessness while going through challenges with addiction, he would have definitely taken inspiration from Robert Downey Jr. who fought a similar, if not more serious battle. There is no doubt that the Marvel alum is a bonafide superstar in Hollywood, and an actor to be reckoned with after his Oscar win.
But even greatness has its vulnerable moments, and Downey Jr. went through some of the worst times in his life when he fell prey to drug and alcohol addiction. The actor was also infamously arrested for the possession of heroin and cocaine, which saw his career taking a sharp dip.
Tragically, The Judge star was influenced by none other than his own father who was a drug addict, and introduced him to it as a little child. In an earlier interview with Vanity Fair, Downey Sr. revealed that he made the future Oscar winner try drugs as early as age 6.
In the Netflix documentary Sr. that examines the complicated relationship between father and son (via People), Downey Sr. confessed that he was permanently haunted by what he subjected his son to in the early years.
A lot of us did things and thought it would be hypocritical to not have our kids participate in marijuana and stuff like that. So we thought it was cute to let ’em smoke it and all that. It was an idiot move on our parts, a lot of us, to share that with our children.
Having faced terrible ordeals like this that contributed to his addiction in his adult life, it was truly a miracle that the Oppenheimer actor got his act together when it mattered the most. While he admitted in the documentary that it took him 20 years to do so, the effort was completely worth it as it ended up saving his life.
All seasons of How I Met Your Mother can be streamed on Hulu.
