Natasha Lyonne Goes Public With Relapse: ‘Recovery Is a Lifelong Process’

Natasha Lyonne is publicly disclosing a relapse in her sobriety journey, urging social media followers to “stay honest” and focus on the love in their lives.

“Took my relapse public,” the Poker Face star wrote in an X post on Saturday. “More to come.”

In a follow-up X post a few hours later, she elaborated: “Recovery is a lifelong process. Anyone out there struggling, remember you’re not alone. Grateful for love [and] smart feet. Gonna do it for baby Bambo. Stay honest, folks. Sick as our secrets. If no one told ya today, I love you. No matter how far down the scales we have gone, we will see how our experience may help another. Keep going, kiddos. Don’t quit before the miracle. Wallpaper your mind with love. Rest is all noise [and] baloney.”

Recovery is a lifelong process. Anyone out there struggling, remember you’re not alone. Grateful for love & smart feet. Gonna do it for baby Bambo. 🎥❤️🥊 Stay honest, folks. Sick as our secrets. If no one told ya today, I love you. No matter how far down the scales we have gone,…

— natasha lyonne (@nlyonne) January 24, 2026

(Lyonne’s “Bambo” comment is a reference to Bambo, an upcoming film she’s writing and directing. The story follows a Brooklyn-born boxing promoter who fails to become the next Don King and takes his daughter, Sophie “Bambo” Braverman, “along for the hurly burly ride of tax evasion, cocaine, race cars, lost dreams, and heartbreak,” according to Deadline. Joey King is circling the role of Bambo, the site added.)

After another X user commended Lyonne for being so open with her struggles, Lyonne replied, “Facts on facts. We need better systems and to end shame — bill the Sacklers [and] stilettos or something, but don’t [at] me for getting honest.”

Lyonne opened up about being an addict in a 2012 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Spiraling into addiction is really, really scary. Some things have a very A-to-B scientific effect. Like, alcohol is a depressant. Cocaine is a stimulant. And then: Cocaine plus heroin is bad! That’s the point of my story, that’s the moral,” she says. “Coke plus heroin equals speedball. And speedball equals bad, you know?”

She added, “It’s weird to talk about. I was definitely as good as dead, you know? A lot of people don’t come back. That makes me feel wary, and self-conscious. I wouldn’t want to feel prideful about it. People really rallied around me and pulled me up by my f***ing bootstraps.”

In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, Lyonne observed that she had said her piece on the subjects, but she added, “The truth is, at the back of that addiction are feelings that so many of us have, that don’t go away. Isn’t everyone entitled to a moment of existential breakdown in a lifetime? Adulthood is making peace with being kind to oneself when a response to life that’s so much more organic and immediate would be to self-destruct.”