JoJo Details Battles With Alcohol and Drug Addictions

More than a decade ago, Joanna "JoJo" Levesque began fighting a private battle.

The singer, who rose to fame as a teen in the early aughts with singles such as "Leave (Get Out)" and "Too Little Too Late," details in her new memoir struggling with addictions to alcohol and the prescription drugs Adderall, a stimulant, and the anti-anxiety medication Xanax.

In 2023, as she was finishing her book, she decided to attend an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting with a friend.

"I was just feeling like I needed a sense of community and home," JoJo, 33, told People in comments published Sept. 17, the day her book Over the Influence was released. "I felt far away from myself, and that has been a touchstone for me since I was young."

The Aquamarine actress—who added she is not sober today, per the magazine—wrote in her memoir that both of her parents had also battled addiction and had actually met in AA. JoJo also noted that one of her earliest childhood memories, from when she was a toddler, was of her accompanying her mother to an AA meeting.

"For a while, I was super self-righteous and thought I'd never be like my parents. I was like, 'No, because I'm the strongest. I'm wicked strong,'" JoJo told People. "But then I was like, 'Oh, what I'm doing is no better or worse. I'm my parents' child, and I need to be awake to what's happening within myself.'"

JoJo's father, Joel Levesque, died at age 60 in 2015. "I missed you even while you were here," she wrote in a tribute to him at the time. "I will miss you infinitely more now that you're gone. Thank you for holding on as long as you did. I know you tried your best. You are free now. I will love you always, Dad."

In November 2016, JoJo spoke about her dad's death, which she said followed a drug overdose, and the opioid crisis in the United States in a video titled "Why I Vote," released ahead of the presidential election.

"I see it destroying families. I see the way it's broken my own family," she said. "I lost my father to addiction."

Joel and her mom Diana, who battled alcohol addiction, divorced when JoJo was a child. Her mom became her manager after she signed a record deal at age 12.

"I admire her for many things—her sobriety, her commitment to health and her ability to take accountability. I love that about her so much," the singer told People. "She's such a beautiful person."

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