How Famous Ex-Smokers Quit Smoking
How many times have you tried to give up smoking? How many methods? As these celebrity ex-smokers demonstrate, there are lots of different ways to quit smoking.
Plenty of well-known figures have successfully quit smoking, many after decades of heavy use.
Celebrity stories: a personal reason and a clear decision.
The average successful quitter takes several tries, so relapse is part of the process rather than a failure.
Matt Damon – hypnotherapy
Damon quit a 20-year habit after a single course of hypnotherapy and called it “the greatest decision I ever made.”
“The reason you finally quit is because you look at what cigarettes do to you… Once you realize the consequences, it’s no longer an option for you to smoke. I think that applies to any addiction.”
Charlize Theron — hypnotherapy
Theron, who described herself as a two-pack-a-day “hardcore” smoker, also turned to hypnotherapy after years of failed attempts and said it finally broke the cycle.
Jerry O’Connell — hypnotherapy
The American actor successfully stopped smoking with hypnotherapy.
“You know, I struggled with nicotine for decades, struggled with it, had to get hypnotised, haven’t had a ciggy in, like, 14 years.”
Christy Turlington — grief turned into advocacy
The supermodel smoked from her teens and quit in her 20s, but the defining moment came when her father died of lung cancer. She became one of fashion’s most visible anti-smoking advocates, fronting campaigns and speaking about how the habit had already damaged her own lungs.
Keith Richards — harder than heroin
The Rolling Stones guitarist — who has quit heroin and cut way back on drinking — stopped smoking around 2019, ahead of a tour. His verdict: giving up cigarettes was harder than giving up heroin. He described it as mostly willpower and simply deciding he’d had enough after roughly 55 years.
Gwyneth Paltrow – willpower
“Even now there are times when I think I want a cigarette but I take great pleasure in being able to control myself.”
Jon Stewart – regular chewing gum
A famously heavy smoker who quit with the help of gum and nicotine lozenges.
“I used cigarettes to fill a void. It was an activity that I did to make myself feel better.”
Have any of these celebrity methods inspired you? They only scrape the surface of the many different techniques out there. To find the right way to stop smoking for you, it’s always a good idea to explore all your options.
