Cara Delevingne Reflects on Viral Airport Photos, Drug Use & The Moment That Led to Sobriety - Just Jared - Celebrity News and Gossip

Cara Delevingne is sharing more about the difficult period behind those viral airport photos.

The 33-year-old model, actress, and singer appeared on The Louis Theroux Podcast in an episode published on Monday (June 29), where she spoke candidly about addiction, sobriety, and the paparazzi photos that sparked widespread concern in 2022.

Cara said the pictures captured her at one of the lowest points of her life.

“Disheveled, yeah. Mentally unwell for sure, not lack of sleep. I just had a seizure,” she said.

She added, “I was not sober for sure.”

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Cara says she had just returned from Burning Man

During the conversation, Louis brought up Burning Man and asked if she had been “caning it” quite hard.

“Yeah,” Cara responded.

She explained that the situation spiraled as she was leaving the festival.

“I was taking a lot of drugs and there was a certain amount of time we had to leave, and I was carrying out, I always overpack for Burning Man,” she said. “I was just carrying loads of suitcases, and my body just couldn’t take it, and I had a seizure, which, again, never seen myself have a seizure, but I’ve had a bunch.”

The Suicide Squad star said the seizure was drug-related, describing it as “either lack of drugs or too many drugs.” She also clarified that the seizure itself was not photographed by paparazzi.

The photos that later circulated were taken after she returned to Los Angeles and headed to the airport again.

“Got home desperately trying to find more drugs because, I don’t know, I hadn’t slept,” she said.

Cara continued, “LA. Before I got on another flight, hadn’t slept. Maybe found some drugs at the house, did them, went to the airport, got out without shoes, hair. I had had so much stuff in my head. The hair after Burning Man, I hadn’t showered probably, so there’s just like sand, hair looks crazy. You can just see it in the eyes.”

“I look absolutely wild and feral and not well,” she added, recalling that she was “smoking a cigarette wearing a free Britney t-shirt or something.”

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The photos had professional consequences for Cara’s career

Cara said the public reaction was immediate and painful.

“People saw it. It was everywhere. I lost jobs. That sucked. People were really worried. That sucked. I got so many messages. It was horrible,” she said.

She explained that, as a model, there are expectations built into the work.

“As a model, you’re meant to keep the brand’s standards in some way. It’s in contracts that you sign,” she said.

The English star explained that she was not necessarily fired outright, but work did dry up.

“They didn’t directly fire me because of it, but they didn’t renew contracts,” she said. “It’s super quiet. Yeah. Everyone went very silent.”

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Cara explains how the aftermath pushed her toward recovery

The Paper Towns actress said she knew she needed to get sober and was medically weaned off GBL, which she described as “probably the hardest one to come off.”

Still, she said trying to face everything while sober felt overwhelming.

“I couldn’t deal with getting sober and realizing, the more I was sober, the more I realized how badly I fucked up, and that was just too much,” she said.

Cara said she struggled to stay sober and later overdosed.

“I couldn’t stay sober, and then I overdosed because I think there was opiates in the cocaine I think I had bought or something,” she said, adding that her girlfriend had to call the police and emergency responders gave her Narcan before she was taken to the hospital.

Cara said waking up afterward and seeing how much pain she had caused the people around her was devastating.

“You know what you’ve just put people you love through, and you see the pain in their face. The shame. It makes me want to cry, and it’s horrible,” she said. “It’s hard to forgive yourself for that. That was one of the most painful things that’s happened to me, so doing that to someone else is really rough.”

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Cara says something changed after that

Cara said she realized she needed to “go away” and make a real decision about getting sober. She also said she had sober people in her life to look up to, including one person who made a darkly memorable promise.

“I have one person say to me, if you stay sober for a year, and I check in on you in a year, and you’ve stayed sober, I’ll buy you a kilo of cocaine, and see if you want to do it again,” Cara recalled.

She said she never wanted to take them up on it.

“I didn’t, because that’s how sure someone is when you’ve reached that point, that if you stay sober for a year, you’ll never want to go back, and that’s true. For me personally, not everyone is so lucky. That was the last time,” she said.

Cara said her relationship with drugs had changed completely by then.

“For some reason, something changed that time. It wasn’t fun anymore. None of it was fun anymore, and I was so desperate that I was praying every day for it to end that cycle and I wanted to create something good with it,” she said.

How sobriety connected to her music career

Cara shared how her sobriety also helped her finally believe she could pursue music.

“So yeah, that’s kind of the opening, I guess, to music because music was always there and I loved it so much, but I didn’t love myself enough to believe that I could do it until I got sober, and until I really forgave myself for everything, and until I really loved all of it, love the dark, loved the light, loved everything in between,” she said. “That’s where an artist emerged.”

Cara officially launched her music career earlier this year by signing with Warner Records and releasing new songs, including “I Forgot” and “Out of My Head.”

She also recently dropped her new single “Need It,” which she co-wrote with Fiona Apple, Tommy King, Victoria Ryann Zaro, Amelia Meath, and Brandon Joyner Burton.

Also in the podcast, Cara opened up about her previous relationship with Amber Heard amid her divorce from Johnny Depp.

Posted To:Cara Delevingne Longform