Hannah Brown stole the hearts of fans when she made her debut on the franchise during Colton Underwood’s season of The Bachelor.
As a former pageant queen, Hannah’s bright, wide smile and outgoing personality won over Colton and Bachelor Nation fans.
While she didn’t win Colton’s heart in the end, she did get promoted to be the next Bachelorette. Hannah thought she found love with her winner, Jed Wyatt, but it turned out Jed wasn’t quite there for the right reasons.
Through it all, Hannah went through a great deal of turmoil, stress, and heartbreak, and it weighed on her significantly–enough to make her turn to alcohol to cope.
Hannah Brown opened up about her dependence on alcohol after the show
During her appearance on The Tamron Hall show last Friday, Hannah revealed to everyone that it was hard for her to deal with the turnaround fame, anxiety, and stress that came with being the leading role in The Bachelorette.
She told Tamron and viewers, “I’d never really been a drinker before and I was on TV, like, every Monday for an entire year and didn’t know how to handle how my life had so publicly been displayed.”
Hannah continued by saying, “[I] have always lived with a smile on my face and, you know, tried to pretend like everything was OK. But then when I was home by myself, the only thing that was really giving me comfort was a glass of wine.”
She then went on to talk about how one glass of wine turned to multiple drinks to deal with how she was feeling. Hannah declared, “[I have] no excuses for mistakes that I’ve made but also, I was not in the best of life … And [I] didn’t know what resources I had to be able to get that help.”
Hannah talked about how much she was drinking in order to function
Not only did Hannah open up about her dependence on alcohol to cope with this show, but she has also addressed them in her memoir, God Bless This Mess. In that book, she talked about how she would often times have her first drink at 11 am and never really stop the entire day.
By drinking so much, Hannah felt like she could deal with being in the public eye and avoid the problems she was having and feeling.
When did Hannah’s turn to alcohol start?
When asked on Entertainment Tonight back in 2021 when exactly it was that she had started to drink so much, Hannah revealed it was during her split with Jed Wyatt whom she had chosen as her winner that season.
After she found out Jed had a girlfriend when coming on the show, and that he really just wanted to further his music career, she was gutted. Hannah then added that after she tried her shot with her runners-up, Tyler Cameron and Peter Weber, and those also didn’t work out, her drinking got even worse.
Thankfully, Hannah was able to finally find the help and resources she needed, as she started therapy to deal with her feelings and her alcohol dependence. She also relayed that her current boyfriend, Adam Woolard, has been a huge help to her as well.
The Bachelorette premieres Monday, July 11th, on ABC.