The Tragic True-Life Story Of Cara Delevingne
Struggles with addiction, depression, and loss? Cara Delevingne's life as a model and actor might seem picture perfect, but she's also experienced some serious tragedy.
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00:00Struggles with addiction, depression, and loss? Cara Delevingne's life as a model and
00:05actor might seem picture-perfect, but she's also experienced some serious tragedy.
00:11Cara Delevingne was introduced to different chemical and alcoholic substances from an
00:15early age. Her first memorable encounter with alcohol came at a family wedding when she
00:20was just 7 years old. The actor told Vogue in 2023,
00:23"...I woke up in my granny's house in my bedroom with a hangover and a bridesmaid's dress.
00:28I'd gone around nailing glasses of champagne."
00:31When faced with a debilitating bout of insomnia a few years later at the age of 10, the solution
00:36was to prescribe her sleeping pills. As she became a teen, she tried other substances
00:41as a way to escape from her thoughts. She went on,
00:44"...that's also when I started drinking and partying. There was this need to escape and
00:48change my reality as I was hit with just huge questions. What am I doing here? Who am I
00:52trying to be?"
00:54Delevingne began to smoke marijuana, in addition to being placed on different prescribed medications
00:58for depression. She does credit the prescription medication for the good it did in her life,
01:02especially when it came to her feelings of isolation. She said,
01:05"...I was on medication and it just, it saved my life."
01:10During Delevingne's childhood, her mother, Pandora, fell back into heroin addiction.
01:14Watching her mother go through the relapse changed the actor's life. She told Vogue in
01:192015,
01:20"...it shapes the childhood of every kid whose parent has an addiction. You grow up too quickly
01:24because you're parenting your parents."
01:26While coming to terms with her mother's situation is still difficult for Delevingne, she's found
01:31ways to channel her feelings about it. She wrote the novel Mirror Mirror, a young adult
01:35book following teens trying to solve the mystery of a friend's disappearance. The mother of
01:40the main character is a person with alcoholism, a parallel to Delevingne's own life growing
01:44up with her mother's addiction.
01:46"...Working on Mirror Mirror has been an incredible experience. It's something that I've wanted
01:51to do my whole life."
01:53When comparing her own substance use to her mother's, the actor notes that she was in
01:56a unique circumstance due to the combination of her lived experiences and her work as a
02:01model later on. She told Vogue,
02:03"...Honestly, I don't think I did anything different from other people my age. But I
02:07definitely have that addict gene. For me, it comes out in an addiction to work. I'd
02:12probably have done more drugs back then if I hadn't been working like mad."
02:17Delevingne's teen years brought on a new set of challenges. Life took a turn when she was
02:2115 as she began experiencing anxiety and depression, sometimes so hard to bear that
02:26she acted out of character. The actor told Vogue,
02:29"...All of a sudden I was hit with a massive wave of depression and anxiety and self-hatred
02:33where the feelings were so painful that I would slam my head against a tree to try to
02:37knock myself out. I just wanted to dematerialize and have someone sweep me away."
02:42While these feelings seemed new, Delevingne told Porter magazine that she'd always thought
02:46something was different growing up, even if she couldn't put a name to it. She said in
02:49the interview,
02:50"...I always felt pretty weird and different as a kid, and that feeling was something I
02:54didn't understand or know how to express. It wasn't like I was an alien, but I definitely
02:59knew there was something weird going on."
03:01To help with these feelings, she began taking different medications and seeing therapists,
03:05though she didn't think they made a difference. She also utilized a variety of different therapies,
03:10including those rooted in music and art, with varying success.
03:13"...Mental health is such an important thing to talk about. It's exactly the same as being
03:18physically sick."
03:20Delevingne saw success with artistic pursuits, but academic ones were a bit harder. Her aunt,
03:24Melinda Stevens, told Vogue in 2023,
03:26"...She was always uniquely talented. Whatever she picked up, whether it was a guitar or
03:30a piano or whatever, she just could play it and nail it."
03:34The actor went to a liberal arts boarding school when she was 16 years old, allowing
03:37herself to dive deeper into music and acting. However, a dyspraxia diagnosis made school
03:43difficult for Delevingne, especially when compared to her older sisters, who thrived
03:47in academic settings.
03:48The disorder impacts a person's physical coordination, making motor skills difficult
03:52to manage, especially when it comes to tasks like writing. With writing a large part of
03:57school, it caused the actor to have a tougher time on exams and other academic tasks. Her
04:01dyspraxia didn't do her well-being any favors at the time, either. Delevingne told Vogue,
04:06"...This was the beginning of mental health issues and inadvertent self-harm."
04:09"...I didn't know how to communicate my emotions. I was so ashamed of the way I felt."
04:14With her mental health declining, Delevingne dropped out of high school, disrupting her
04:17education much earlier than the many actors who have dropped out of college. She told
04:21Vogue,
04:22"...I thought that if I wanted to act, I'd need to finish school, but I got so I couldn't
04:26wake up in the morning."
04:27She began modeling full-time, landing her first paid assignment and first runway show
04:31after a year, during which she encountered a variety of casting situations, from uncomfortable
04:37test shoots to being immediately dismissed during in-person auditions. Her luck in the
04:41fashion industry changed when she was hired for Burberry's 2011 spring campaign by designer
04:47Christopher Bailey. The show became her big break at 18 years old, quickly leading to
04:51more bookings. From that point forward, her career officially took off. She became known
04:56for her iconic eyebrows and as the face of large campaigns, fostering a relationship
05:01with Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel and walking in the Victoria's Secret fashion show.
05:05"...It's definitely been a journey, but I always knew since I was younger that I wanted
05:09to be myself."
05:11In 2017, Cara Delevingne spoke out about the sexual harassment she encountered at the hands
05:16of film producer and now convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. In a since-deleted post
05:21on Instagram, the actor shared two different instances with the producer that were wildly
05:25inappropriate and unsettling. Delevingne wrote in the post,
05:28"...When I first started to work as an actress, I was working on a film and I received a call
05:32from Harvey Weinstein asking if I had slept with any of the women I was seen out with
05:36in the media. As she tried to get off the phone, the producer told her she would never
05:40have the career she wanted if she was gay or publicly dated women."
05:45The actor also described another encounter with the producer that happened later. While
05:48meeting with him about a project, she was encouraged by both him and his assistant to
05:53go to his hotel room while she waited for her ride. When she arrived, another woman
05:57was in the room, and the producer asked for them to kiss. Delevingne instead began to
06:01sing to diffuse the situation and left the room despite Weinstein's attempts to stop
06:06her. She wrote,
06:07"...Since then, I felt awful that I did the movie. I felt like I didn't deserve the part.
06:11I was so hesitant about speaking out."
06:15In 2022, Delevingne was in Tokyo, Japan, filming the series Planet Sex when she was informed
06:19that her grandmother died. She and her grandmother were close as she grew up, and Delevingne often
06:24stayed at her grandmother's house when her parents were unable to watch her. She struggled
06:29to process the news while getting back into work as the industry started up again after
06:33the shutdowns from the pandemic eased up. Delevingne told Vogue,
06:36"...I was really trying to pour everything I had into work, and every night I would come
06:40back from filming and sit alone and just cry. By the time I got to the Met Ball two
06:44weeks later, I was f----- exhausted."
06:47Her grandmother's death was the start of what would become a difficult summer for Delevingne.
06:52As her 20s were coming to a close, the actor and model spent three weeks in Ibiza with
06:57her friends, hosting an Alice and Wonderland-themed party to celebrate her birthday. During her
07:02time there, Delevingne felt like she was saying goodbye to a different time in her life, and
07:06it caused her to self-isolate and spend more time alone. She told Vogue,
07:10"...the house I was staying in had a tower and I would just kind of lock myself in it
07:14instead. I barely left the room."
07:16After Ibiza, Delevingne moved on to Burning Man in Nevada. Paparazzi photos of her published
07:21at the time caused her fans to worry about her. The actor said she was still partaking
07:25in what she felt were self-destructive behaviors, including drug use. She told Vogue,
07:30"...I put myself in danger in those moments, because I don't care about my life. I would
07:34climb anything and jump off stuff. It felt feral."
07:38"...It didn't matter how many people around me were like, are you okay? This isn't good,
07:42you need help."
07:43She admitted that she couldn't remember everything that happened at the time, including the substances
07:47she used. Her friends and family finally came to her aid. Delevingne reached out to her
07:51friends and they all gathered around her. The actor told Vogue,
07:55"...I needed to start reaching out. And my old friends I've known since I was 13, they
07:59all came over and we started crying. They looked at me and said, you deserve a chance
08:03to have joy."
08:05In March 2024, Delevingne was in London, performing in the West End production of Cabaret, when
08:10she heard the news nobody wants to hear. Her house in Los Angeles had burned down. One
08:14individual in the home had minor smoke inhalation, and one firefighter was hospitalized due to
08:19injuries from trying to control the blaze. Delevingne's two cats were rescued and unharmed.
08:25The actor expressed her thanks for the firefighters and emergency personnel that responded to
08:29the scene in her Instagram stories at the time, posting several photos of the street
08:33and first responders. It took over two hours for emergency responders to extinguish the
08:38fire. In London, Delevingne and her parents left the Playhouse Theatre and spoke to the
08:42press in the hours after the news broke. Her father told TMZ the possible cause of the
08:47fire was electrical. Delevingne's house was previously featured in Architectural Digest
08:51in 2021. It featured a David Bowie memorial bathroom, game rooms, and a ball pit.
08:57"...The meaning I have from this house is you just never grow up."
09:01Cara Delevingne has opened up about her journey with sobriety. For the actor, part of starting
09:05that path was recognizing that, after the difficult summer she had following her grandmother's
09:10death, she felt she didn't look healthy. She told Vogue,
09:13"...It's heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point it was like,
09:17OK, I don't look well, you know, sometimes you need a reality check."
09:20Shortly thereafter, the actor participated in a 12-step program. For Delevingne, part
09:25of her sobriety is committing to herself, rather than putting everything she has into
09:28trying to rescue everyone around her. While she loves helping others with their stress,
09:33particularly with activities like games, it kept her from facing her own feelings and
09:37thoughts, she said of the experience.
09:39"...But in giving that to people, I was kind of stuck in myself."
09:43At the 2024 Met Gala, Delevingne shared her ongoing sobriety journey with Variety, trying
09:48to inspire others that may be working towards similar goals. She told the publication,
09:52"...You're not alone. If I can do it, anyone can. But you need to communicate and be honest
09:56about it as much as you can, especially with yourself."
10:00"...All I knew is that if I was continuing to go down the road I was, I would either
10:03end up dead or, like, doing something really, really stupid."