Headlines about Cara Delevingne ran rampant last year. There was that time she was seen as behaving erratically while interacting with Doja Cat on a red carpet. Then, there were disheveled airport pics, prompting people to ask if the Carnival Row actress was unwell. Amidst this, another set of photos seemed to show her unraveling around gal pal Margot Robbie. Now, months later, the actress gets candid about what was going on during that time.
You might think the paparazzi taking unflattering photos of you at the airport would not be a great day. Yet, from what Cara Delevingne divulged in a new interview with Vogue, she’s actually “grateful” for the photos coming out. In fact, she said the photos and the chatter that followed were wake-up calls for her, noting,
I hadn’t slept. I was not OK. It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point it was like, ‘OK, I don’t look well.’ You know, sometimes you need a reality check, so in a way those pictures were something to be grateful for.
While photos at a subsequent Karl Lagerfeld event had her looking polished and put together, the airport photos were a lot closer to what the star was going through internally. Delevingne went on to explain that she had, in fact, pushed those closest to her away. This could explain those viral photos with Margot Robbie, photos that even alarmed Robbie’s mother.
I just kind of pushed everyone away, which made me realize how much I was in a bad place. I always thought that the work needs to be done when the times are bad, but actually the work needs to be done when they’re good. The work needs to be done consistently. It’s never going to be fixed or fully healed but I’m okay with that, and that’s the difference.
Robbie was one of the members of her girl posse including her sister Poppy Delevingne and Sienna Miller. The friends had traveled together to Ibiza in Spain for her 30th birthday in August of 2022, around the same time as some of these news reports started coming to a head. She said of that time:
I told myself, I should be having such a good time. I’ve got all my friends here. I need to be enjoying this. The house I was staying in had a tower and I would just kind of lock myself in it instead. I barely left the room.There was this need for change, but I was fighting it so much. 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. And so I decided I was going to party as hard as I could because this was the end.
Following rumors hedging the star needed rehab, Cara Delevingne talked about the process of addiction and what her personal journey has been. She also started exploring her sexuality more firmly thanks to signing on for Planet Sex on Hulu (A therapist even recommended Delevingne start masturbating.)
This process obviously has its ups and downs, but I’ve started realizing so much. People want my story to be this after-school special where I just say, ‘Oh look, I was an addict, and now I’m sober and that’s it.’ And it’s not as simple as that. It doesn’t happen overnight…. Of course I want things to be instant—I think this generation especially, we want things to happen quickly—but I’ve had to dig deeper.
As part of this journey, Cara Delevingne is coming to terms with her past. There are her struggles with her feelings over her mother Pandora, whose addictions the actress recalls were “brutal.” She’s dealt with alcohol misuse (getting drunk at seven for the first time) for the majority of her life. At 15 she dealt with a breakdown and has been medicated for years, dealing with bouts of depression throughout her lifetime. Then, in 2020 she broke up with Ashley Benson during the pandemic, which she told the outlet was a real “low point.”
Now, though, after all the reality checks and all the moments that played out in the press, she’s committed to the 12-step program and says she’s moving forward “second by second.” Work has been a key focal point for her, and there’s a lot of it ahead. Carnival Row and Planet Sex were big releases recently, and she has gig in Punk and The Climb coming up. While the future is always a question mark, there’s seemingly a lot to look forward to.
