Pete Davidson opens up about 'brutal' reason he got sober

Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.

Pete Davidson has revealed his reason for getting sober as he breaks his hiatus from comedy.

The 32-year-old has had a recent time of change these last couple of years, from spending $200,000 dollars burning off 200 tattoos, to becoming a first-time dad after he and model Elsie Hewitt, announced the birth of his daughter in December of last year.

Davidson also got sober, having spoken openly about his struggles with addiction and mental health throughout his career.

But the Saturday Night Live alum explained the big step he took to make sure he’s taking the steps to staying clean.

During his most recent performance at a comedy show in Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on Saturday (April 11), he revealed he had been to rehab, and how his mom played an important factor.

Pete Davidson spoke about getting sober (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

“I went to rehab this time,” Davidson disclosed, revealing: “I was like, ‘I’m gonna I’m gonna actually do it so I could save some of this money I’m making and stop blowing it on rehab.’” Per footage obtained by Us Weekly, he told the audience he had a meeting with his mother, where she divulged the heartache of seeing her child do drugs.

He said: “I did family week, [which is] when, with your therapist, you Zoom your family and they tell you how difficult it is for them to watch you do drugs.”

The comedian recalled that she told him that it was ‘hard to be your mom’, and called it ‘not a fun job’.

To this, he said he was thinking at the time: "Well, you’re not f**king that special. What do you do?”

“She went, ‘Enough.’ She f***ed me up. She was, like, ‘Peter, ‘It’s very hard to be your mom because I wake up every morning with the fear that I’ll turn on the news and see that my son has died,’” Davidson told the crowd, adding: “She told me all this on Zoom — from the house that I bought her on drugs. I was like, ‘Someone’s getting used to things.’ That got me sober.”

Calling it 'brutal', he eventually made it to over a year of being sober.

Davidson explained his mom had a role to play (Photo by: Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Elsewhere in the show, the comedian spoke on the birth of his baby, and that it has made it hard to watch porn.

Disclaimer: It was a joke.

He said, as reported by Us Weekly: “[I] got a little girl. It's weird having a little girl.”

Davidson said it’s ‘hard to watch porn... in front of her,’ before adding: "I still did. I power through.”

He and Elsie announced Scottie’s birth just last year, calling her ‘our perfect angel girl’ who had arrived 12/12/2025’.

Her name, ‘scottie rose hewitt davidson’, is an ode to Davidson’s dad, Scott, who passed away as a New York firefighter during 9/11.

If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can call American Addiction Centers on (313) 209-9137 24/7, or contact them through their website.