Fans of actress Cara Delevingne are celebrating her stepping into a new era—one marked by her victorious battle against substance dependence.
The 32-year-old model was labeled “radiant” after making an appearance at the 2025 Coachella Music Festival over the weekend, proudly showing off the results of her hard-fought sobriety journey.
Highlights
- Cara Delevingne praised for her 'radiant' Coachella 2025 appearance after embracing sobriety.
- Delevingne enrolled in a 12-step program, calling it 'life-saving' for battling substance dependence.
- Viral 2022 airport photos of a disheveled Delevingne served as a wake-up call.
- The actress emphasized the power of community-driven healing in her recovery process.
Delevigne showed up to the event in a tan tank top, dark brown shorts cinched with a leopard print belt, and a denim jacket. She completed the look with Prada sandals and gold jewelry.
Her transformation follows years of struggle with substance use, which she said “nearly broke her,” and is the result of a conscious decision by the actress to leave behind a lifestyle that had become “unsustainable.”
Fans of Cara Delevingne are celebrating her “radiant” appearance after becoming sober
Image credits: caradelevingne / Instagram
“I was not okay,” the actress confessed in a 2023 interview with Vogue. “It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point it was like, ‘Okay, I don’t look well.'”
In the same interview, Delevigne reflected on what became her rock-bottom moment—her 30th birthday, a celebration where she found herself depressed and unable to enjoy the company of her loved ones.
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Pandemic isolation, coupled with the pressure to constantly perform all contributed to accelerating what she referred to as a “downward spiral.”
“I always kind of knew that things were going to have to be different in my 30s because the way that I was living was not sustainable,” she said.
Image credits: River Callaway / Getty Images
“There was this need for change, but I was fighting it so much,” Delevigne continued, reluctant to leave the lifestyle she had grown accustomed to behind for good.
“I was welcoming in this new time, but I was also grieving. It was like a funeral for my previous life, a goodbye to an era.”
Realizing her problem wasn’t one to be fixed with willpower alone, she enrolled in a 12-step program—a decision she called “life-saving.”
“The community made a huge difference,” she explained. “The opposite of dependence is connection, and I really found that in the program.”
The actress reached rock bottom in 2022 when a set of airport photos showing her disheveled and dirty served as a wake-up call
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Back in 2022, troubling photos of the actress pacing barefoot and disheveled outside Van Nuys airport in Los Angeles, California, went viral.
Wearing nothing but a Britney Spears black shirt and dirty orange socks, Delevigne was photographed smoking and texting for someone to pick her up.
Shocked fans wasted no time in making their concern apparent, with many urging the actress to seek professional help.
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“She is in need of help even if she doesn't know it herself,” a user wrote at the time. “This is incredibly sad.”
“This will cause great concern to her family; hope she can find and accept, the help she so clearly needs,” another said.
The actress talked about the importance of community-driven healing, crediting her 12-step group with saving her life
Image credits: caradelevingne / Instagram
Looking back, Delevingne credits those exact airport photos with saving her life, calling them a much-needed “reality check.”
“So in a way, those pictures were something to be grateful for,” she added.
Image credits: caradelevingne / Instagram
For the actress, who had previously tried methods such as therapeutic retreats, true healing didn’t begin until she addressed the root cause of her issue. The hardest part was taking a look at herself in the mirror and admitting that she had a problem.
“It was about not being ashamed,” she said. “You owe it to people to talk about your struggles.”
Image credits: caradelevingne / Instagram
In a similar interview with Variety last year, the actress encouraged others like her to believe in the power of honesty in recovery, saying, “If I can do it, anyone can. But you need to communicate and be honest about it as much as you can—especially with yourself.”
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Since getting sober, the Suicide Squad star has reclaimed her life and reflected on the impact her behavior had on her.
“I used to think illegal substances and alcohol helped me cope, but they didn’t,” she said in an interview with The Times. “They kept me sad and super depressed. I feel like I’ve got my power back, and I’m not being controlled by other things.”
"Happy for her." Netizens celebrated the actress taking care of herself
