Emmy-nominated actress Sanaa Lathan shared a deeply weak second from her life earlier than a big viewers.
Lathan is understood for starring because the lead in “Disappearing Acts” with Wesley Snipes, “The Finest Man” with Morris Chestnut and Terrance Howard, and “Brown Sugar” with Taye Diggs.
After greater than 30 years in Hollywood, she admits her habit practically price her every thing she labored arduous for.
Lathan opened up in regards to the emotional toll of carrying unresolved trauma, explaining that years of hysteria finally took a bodily toll.
That realization led her to remedy, retreats, and finally sobriety.
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“For me, I wanted a device field,” she instructed Keke Palmer, who hosted a particular livestreaming expertise on the Essence Pageant of Tradition in New Orleans this weekend.
Palmer then requested in regards to the challenges Lathan talked about in a Substack article, the place she touched on her ties to alcoholism.
She went from residing a daily life to being a working actress in Hollywood, however by no means stopped to take care of her trauma.
Lathan described herself as an “HSP,” a extremely delicate particular person and excessive empath who “loves the craft.”
a few of sanaa Lathan roles she performed in. Which one is your favorite? pic.twitter.com/2lxhndZblc
— 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘦 🇰🇷 (@paige__gm) June 30, 2026
She effortlessly stays off the media circuit, returning to pink carpets just for motion pictures she stars in or directs as a result of she hates the “schmoozing” of the business.
“If I had slightly shot of tequila earlier than, I’d be good, proper? It’s like liquid braveness. Lots of people do it,” Lathan confessed. “It’s so part of our tradition.”
Greater than tradition, alcoholism confirmed up as a direct tie to her household following a January look on “Discovering Your Roots.”
The present helps friends hint their household’s ancestral lineage, utilizing historic paperwork, genealogical analysis, and DNA testing to uncover hidden secrets and techniques — recognized and unknown.
“My father broke the cycle. My father received sober once I was most likely like 15,” Lathan shared. “His father died of alcoholism when he was 4. After which I discovered on ‘Discovering Your Roots,’ that his father died of alcoholism.”
Discovering out that two generations of her household had confronted the identical battle, and now she was the third, was a tough tablet to swallow.
Sanaa Lathan along with her father, the legendary director & producer Stan Lathan. 🤎
Past being a wonderful father-daughter second, Stan Lathan is the good thoughts who directed classics like ‘Stanford and Son,’ ‘Martin,’ and ‘Moesha,’ whereas additionally co-creating ‘Def Comedy Jam’.… pic.twitter.com/SuklJ3g9KS
— Bob Supervisor (@OfficiaBob) July 1, 2026
“And that is why I by no means decide anyone with habit; it’s a genetic factor,” Lathan defined. “You must have compassion for these individuals as a result of one thing that may be simple for you, shouldn’t be simple for the following particular person. It’s in your DNA.”
When it got here to her battle with sobriety, the actress mentioned, “No matter that gene was, I simply liked it, pointing again to her household sample.”
She admitted that life is and has been arduous, however giving up alcohol has been probably the most transformative resolution of her life.
“There’s a pleasure and a peace that I’ve now that I may by no means have had if I used to be poisoning myself daily,” she mentioned.
The growing old course of has fairly actually skipped Sanaa Lathan. Completely beautiful at each single stage. 💫 pic.twitter.com/OyYuqflge7
— Bob Supervisor (@OfficiaBob) July 3, 2026
Lathan mentioned she wasn’t an alcoholic within the sense that she drank all day at house as a result of she by no means would maintain liquor there.
However when she goes out, she’d have “5 heavy martinis” as an alternative of two drinks like her buddies.
She struggled probably the most along with her sobriety whereas working in New Orleans, a spot the place you may get daiquiris or Unimaginable Hulk drinks at 10 a.m.”
She additionally struggled whereas capturing the 2024 Hulu adaptation movie, “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat,” because the older model of Barbara Jean Maxberry. Her character was a spiraling alcoholic who battled grief following the tragic dying of her husband and son.
However extra importantly, she thought of her age at 54 and the way alcohol can result in a “unhealthy mind and coronary heart.”
“As a result of I additionally knew about historical past, I used to be like I gotta cease it. It’s been eight years now. And I couldn’t think about stopping,” mentioned Lathan. “There’s a lot that I’ve completed that I might have by no means been capable of do once I was consuming.”
