Sexual healing! The stars who have overcome sex addiction

Sex addiction is just as real as alcohol or drug dependence and for sufferers it can damage their relationships, careers and finances. These celebrities have been open about their struggles with sex and are now in recovery…

Her ‘Red Table Talk’ chat show has revealed plenty of surprising things about the Smith family, but few as unexpected as Jada’s former sex addiction. The ‘Girls Trip’ star told her daughter Willow Smith and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris that she curbed her addiction by going cold turkey and forcing herself to confront the reasons that led to the behaviour. She said: “That's the thing about me, I can go cold turkey. I am a binger, and I always have to watch myself and I can just get obsessed.”

The father-of-four revealed in 2019 that battling a sex addiction left him feeling like he was drowning: “It's like that was such a script out of a rock star's life. My mum had passed a year before and I said some people drown themselves in drugs. And I drowned myself in my addiction ... sex.” The rapper can pinpoint the exact moment in his childhood that his struggles began. He said: “My dad had a Playboy left out at age 5 and it's affected almost every choice I made for the rest of my life. From age 5 ‘til now, having to kick the habit and it just presents itself in the open like it's OK and I stand up and say, 'No, it's not OK.'”

The actor is known for his character’s promiscuous behaviour in ‘Californication’, but his sexual impulses off set caused problems in his family. After it was discovered that he had been cheating on his wife Tea Leoni for years, she issued him an ultimatum between treatment and divorce. The father-of-two promptly checked into The Meadows facility in Arizona for 35 days in 2008 to address his problem.

Few people have been as open about their sex addiction as the Sports Illustrated swimwear model. Smith has discussed her problem on three TV shows: ‘Celeb Rehab with Dr. Drew’, ‘Sober House’, and ‘Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew’. If a problem shared is a problem halved, the model must be well on her way to recovery. She also even penned a book ‘Love Addict: Sex, Romance, and Other Dangerous Drugs’, describing how she stalked a man for 12 years.

Like Amber Smith, the Swedish-British TV presenter has also discussed her addiction on national television. Channel 4's ‘Ulrika…Am I A Sex Addict?’ uncovered Jonsson’s addiction and described a sufferer of the condition as “someone whose sexual behavior damaged their life”.

The comedian is open about being a reformed drug and alcohol addict, but did you know he has also battled a sex addition? He described his old life as a “a Wonka ticket to a sex factory” and checked into a 30-day stay in rehab to address his “carnal overindulgences”. When describing his motivation for checking into rehab in his autobiography, he wrote: “As my sexual appetite grew, I found myself engaged in an increasingly desperate quest to satisfy it. I became so open to suggestion that when someone asked me if I’d like to go to an orgy, I didn’t think twice before accepting the invitation.”

The professional golfer admitted to multiple “infidelities” after his sex scandal broke in 2009 and with the intention of becoming a better husband to Elin Norgren, father and person, he checked into the Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services clinic in Hattiesburg to seek recovery from his sex addiction. Tiger even took time off golf to work on himself, but sadly he couldn’t repair the damage he’d done to his marriage and the couple divorced in 2010.

The ‘Parks and Rec’ star is certainly a sex addiction success story. He was caught up in a scandal in the late 80s when it was revealed that a 16-year-old girl was involved in his leaked sex tape. After checking into rehab, he now claims: “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."

Khloé Kardashian's ex wrote “I am a sex addict”, in his 2019 memoir, ‘Darkness to Light’ and claimed that he had slept with over 2,000 women and repeatedly cheated on the ‘Keeping Up with The Kardashians’ star during their four-year marriage. Odom is now well on his way to recovery from both drug use and sex addiction.

The Irish actor has been open about his struggles. Although he once earned the nickname "the Lusty Leprechaun" thanks to his love of women, he eventually entered rehab, but not before a sex tape with Playboy Playmate Nicole Narain surfaced. He said: “If there is a trick to finding a healthy relationship with sex and you find it out will you please come and find me? Seriously, man, I'm not that hard to find. Of course sex addiction is real. There are chemicals that flow through the brain in a moment's sexual dalliance that are similar to those that appear when you take a substance.”