What prompted Cara Delevingne to check into rehab and get sober

Cara Delevingne says she recently celebrated her first sober Christmas and New Year’s Eve with girlfriend Leah “Minke” Mason after checking herself into treatment for substance abuse.

The 30-year-old made headlines back in September 2022 after behaving erratically while on her way to Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles.

While her driver made his way through LA traffic, Delevingne’s feet could be seen dangling from the window of the backseat of the Chevy Suburban. She reportedly showed up two hours late for a flight on Jay-Z’s private plane, only to de-board it around 45 minutes later.

Back on the tarmac, Delevingne appeared jittery, dropping her cell phone several times while speaking on it, before departing.

Delevingne opens up about treatment

While speaking with Vogue, Delevingne addressed the photos from the incident, explaining that she was “not OK” after returning from the Burning Man festival in Nevada.

“It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point, it was like, ‘OK, I don’t look well’,” said Delevingne.

“So in a way, those pictures were something to be grateful for.”

Delevingne says she is currently in a 12-step treatment program after checking into rehab in late 2022, and explained why she turned down opportunities to do so in the past.

“I wasn’t ready,” she said. “That’s the problem. If you’re not face-first on the floor and ready to get up again, you won’t. At that point, I really was.”

She also explained why she needed to enter a long-term treatment, rather than a “week retreat”.

“All I knew is if I was continuing to go down the road I was, I would either end up dead or, like, doing something really, really stupid,” said Delevingne.

“That was scary. … Treatment was the best thing. It was always something I was very scared of, but I think I needed that community. I needed that support group.”

Delevingne and her recovery

Now four months clean, Delevingne says she is enjoying her sobriety, which still continuing her treatment.

“I’m enjoying [sobriety]. It’s one of my favorite things to, like, go out and dance and have a good time but actually have, like, deep conversations and connections with people,” she said.

“This process obviously has its ups and downs, but I’ve started realizing so much. People want my story to be this after-school special where I just say, ‘Oh, look, I was an addict, and now I’m sober and that’s it.’ And it’s not as simple as that. It doesn’t happen overnight.”