While the World Health Organization recognized compulsive sexual behavior as sex addiction, as reported by the Mayo Clinic, and that 24 million U.S. adults could be classified as addicted to sex, it has not been classified as a mental health disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). That does not mean that many people, including some of Hollywood’s biggest names, have not struggled with the impulse toward sex and using sex as a reward (in the same way that people might gamble or smoke as a compulsion).
Related story
This Is Reportedly The Exact Lipstick Audrey Hepburn Used on the Set of Breakfast at Tiffany’s & This Is the Last Chance to Get it for $6
The Cleveland Clinic defines sex addiction as “excessive sexual thoughts, desires, urges or behaviors that can’t be controlled and cause distress and harm to your relationships, finances and other aspects of your life.” Also called hypersexuality and compulsive sexual behavior, sex addictions are tumultuous for famous individuals due to the many temptations made easily accessible by their status and lifestyle.
From parties and drugs to fans who can’t resist getting as close as possible — literally — to some of the world’s biggest stars, acknowledging and kicking a sex addiction hasn’t been easy for these celebrities, and some of them are still suffering the consequences of their escapades to this day. Jesse James, Mike Caussin, and Lamar Odom all lost their marriages due to their repeated infidelity, for example.
Whether their compulsive sexual behavior has impacted the rest of their lives or were more of a lesson learned, the following celebrities have opened up about their experiences with sex addiction. Read on to learn about how some celebs have recovered fully, how some battle their demons daily, and how all of them were forced to face their addiction in one way or another.
-
David Duchovny
Image Credit: Variety via Getty Images Californication star David Duchovny, famous for playing a sex-obsessed writer on TV, announced in 2008 that he was “voluntarily” entering rehab for sex addiction, per a statement from his lawyer published by BBC News. “I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family,” added the X Files actor, who was married to now-ex Tea Leoni at the time. The couple shares two children, West, now 25, and Kyd, now 22.
-
Andra Day
Image Credit: Getty Images The powerful Rise Up singer, Golden Globe winner, and Oscar nominee for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday emphasized in a cover interview with InStyle that she very much did not want to focus on Holiday’s sexuality and instead wanted to zero in on her impact on the music industry. Part of the reason for this was because of Day’s own past with her sexuality.
“I didn’t want any element of sexualization. I had come out of something in my own life — dealing with porn addiction, sex addiction,” she said. “I’m being very, very candid with you because I’m not the only one. But I knew I wanted all of that very much gone.”
-
Dean McDermott
Image Credit: Penske Media via Getty Images Actor and reality star Dean McDermott cheated on his then-wife, Tori Spelling, back in 2013, and soon left for rehab for “health and personal issues,” People reported at the time, per the LA Times. Those issues were later found to be sex addiction, as E! News and other outlets later reported. “I am truly sorry for the mistakes I have made and for the pain I’ve caused my family,” McDermott said in a statement at the time.
In 2014, Spelling opened up about how the affair affected her, showing how deeply sex addiction can hurt loved ones. The Beverly Hills, 90210 actress told Us Weekly that McDermott “was my soulmate, but he completely broke my heart. It makes you not trust anything that’s happened in your relationship.”
-
Tiger Woods
Image Credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images for The Match. After his infidelities had become very public in 2009, golf icon Tiger Woods underwent treatment for sex addiction. According to his swing coach, Hank Haney, Woods said once he finished therapy, “What I learned is that for the rest of my life I can’t have sex with someone unless I genuinely feel something for them. If I do, I’m putting myself in jeopardy.”
-
Robbie Williams
Image Credit: Penske Media via Getty Images British pop star Robbie Williams once said he was “addicted” to having sex with strangers, according to the Daily Mail. “I didn’t know whether I’d be able to give that up,” he said in 2017, the outlet reported.
Williams has been married to Ayda Field since 2010, and is able to open up to his wife about his former proclivities. “I was saying to her last night, it’s really special that we’re around a lot of really good looking people, all the way through the summer – and I feel no longing to be up to the nefarious stuff.” Field, Williams added, has been instrumental in his recovery. “She’s really empathetic, really kind, incredibly smart and very, very funny – and I trust her,” he explained. “The thing with sex with other people is very much like cocaine. I’m not looking for cocaine any more and therefore I don’t find it.”
-
Charlie Sheen
Image Credit: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Annabel’s. In 1995, Charlie Sheen testified that he spent $53,000 on “sexual services” from sex workers, and in 2000, he told Maxim that if he had to guess, he’d say he’d slept with 5,000 women by that point. Over a decade later in 2015, the actor publicly announced he’d been HIV-positive for four years.
-
Rob Lowe
Image Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for TOM FORD: AUTUMN/WINTER 2020 RUNWAY SHOW. After a sex tape was released in the 1980s of Rob Lowe and two women — one of which was found to only have been 16 — the actor went to rehab and has been sober ever since.
During a 2019 appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagel Show, Lowe shared, “People talk about it, I go, ‘I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.’ Honestly, I do, ’cause it got me sober. Sober got me married. I’ve been married 29 years, and I have two great sons. I don’t think any of that happens without going through that scandal. I really don’t.”
-
Jada Pinkett Smith
Image Credit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic. On an episode of Red Table Talk, Jada Pinkett Smith revealed she battled with sex addiction, explaining, “When I was younger, I definitely think I had a sex addiction of some kind, yes, that everything could be fixed by sex.”
The actress continued, “I am a binger, and I always have to watch myself and I can just get obsessed with things. It’s not what you’re doing but how you’re with it. Why you’re doing it. It’s the behavior that’s attached to it because if you want to have a lot of sex, that’s great, but why are you having all that sex? That’s what you’ve got to look at.”
-
Lamar Odom
Image Credit: Prince Williams/ Getty Images. Lamar Odom opened up about his near-fatal sex addiction in his memoir, Darkness to Light. “I have been obsessed with sex for as long as I can remember,” he wrote. He referred to his many infidelities during his marriage to Khloé Kardashian, explaining, “I wanted to take it back, but you can’t. [I] wanted to hide it. But that sick sin was hard for me to hide … I had a problem.”
The former NBA player told People that his sex addiction was a trigger for drug use “Because you double up on [that] good feeling.” Odom ultimately calls his 2015 overdose his “wake-up call,” and although he admitted he still struggles, he also said, “I will not go into the darkness. Ever again.”
‘Darkness to Light’ by Lamar Odom$20.64 $24.95 17% Off
on Amazon.com
-
Colin Farrell
Image Credit: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images. Prior to entering rehab for his sex addiction, Irish actor Colin Farrell was frequently referred to as “the Lusty Leprechaun.” He’d been sober for nearly 10 years when he told Elle in 2014 that having sex for the first time after becoming sober was “one of the most terrifying moments of my life … Because I was just used to drunkenness and dark rooms and clubs and toilets and wherever.”
-
Mike Caussin
Image Credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images. Ex-NFL player Mike Caussin famously imploded his marriage with actress and singer Jana Kramer due to his sex addiction. After more than a dozen affairs and a years-long stint in sex rehab, Kramer filed for divorce after finding out Caussin had cheated on her yet again.
-
Jennifer Lewis
Image Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images. Black-ish star Jenifer Lewis lived with undiagnosed bipolar disorder for years and believes she developed a sex addiction as a way to cope. In her 2017 memoir, The Mother of Black Hollywood, the former Broadway star said the “rush” of performing on stage left her with a void after the crowds went home. “The applause coming over the footlights was like a tsunami in slow motion,” she wrote, per an excerpt published in People. “The crash after the show, I assure you, is just as intense. Let’s just say that post show I had a sort of habit of sex serving as a night cap. I was Cleopatra, Pam Grier, Marilyn Monroe, and Jezebel rolled into one. For me, nothing could extend the thrill of a standing ovation like great sex with a gorgeous guy.”
With help from her therapist, Lewis learned that her sex addiction “wasn’t really about the sex. It was about the unresolved psychological problems that caused me pain. Sex was simply my painkiller.”
‘The Mother of Black Hollywood’ by Jennifer Lewis$14.49 $15.99 9% Off
on Amazon.com
-
Jesse James
Image Credit: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images. After four women came forward claiming Jesse James had had a foursome with them, the TV personality — then married to Sandra Bullock — entered rehab. In 2010, he explained during a Nightline interview, “I grew up with a huge amount of shame and fear and abandonment on my shoulders from a very young age and I think, you know, the way my mind rationalized [cheating], ‘Well, you know, I might as well do whatever I can to like run her off cause she is going to find out what I am anyway and leave me anyway.’”
James continued, “I don’t think I have a sex addiction where I’m running around trying to have sex with everyone and I can’t stop… I think I do things to sabotage my life, including having extramarital affairs, texting, overworking myself, injuring myself, doing stunts and stupid things. I think I do a lot of things in my life that I shouldn’t be doing that aren’t conducive to being a perfect husband, you know, and the affairs are just one of them.”
