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Rob Lowe opens up about his wife, children and sobriety in brutally honest interview

The star has been married to Sheryl Berkoff since 1991

rob lowe family confession
Hannah Hargrave
US Deputy Editor
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Rob Lowe has had a long and celebrated career in Hollywood but it has not been without its struggles.

Now, the 9-1-1: Lone Star actor has opened the doors to his life with his wife, Sheryl Berkoff and their two grown children and made several candid confessions about his past and his hopes for the future. 

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Rob spoke to People magazine about the early days of his career and revealed his battle with alcohol led to him hitting rock bottom. 

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While he has been sober for more than three decades, in the 1990's he was a self-confessed party animal. 

It was an agonizing late night call from his mother, Barbara, which made him realize he was broken. Rob documented the moment he knew he needed help when he was 26 years old.

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He had returned from a night on the town and heard a crushing message from his mother on the answer machine.

rob lowe wife sons© Photo: Getty Images

Rob hit rock bottom before meeting his wife and starting a family 

She was begging him to pick up the phone as his grandfather had suffered a heart attack. 

The star did not answer or return her call and instead reached for the bottle. He said: "I remember going into the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror and my thought process was, 'You need to drink directly from this bottle of Cuervo Gold so you can go to sleep, so you can wake up, so you can deal with this,'

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"Out of all the things that had gone on in my life, that was the thing where finally I went, 'This is no way to live.' I went to rehab 48 hours later."

rob lowe wife sheryl© Photo: Getty Images

Rob has been married to Sheryl since 1991

It was around this time that he also met a woman who would change his life - his wife, Sheryl. They had worked together on the movie, Bad Influence, and he said for the first time he felt "seen".

"I had the feeling that if I was ever going to be able to make it work with anybody, it was Sheryl," he told People. "Alcohol and drugs were only going to make that next to impossible."

The couple tied the knot less than two years after they met and went on to have two sons together. Matthew, 28, is a lawyer, and 26-year-old John Owen works as a TV writer. 

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Rob adores being a father 

"I'm happy I lived the life that I lived because I have no regrets, but I was super ready to coach Little League, carve pumpkins on Halloween, read books and serve hot lunch on Wednesdays," he added about how being a father changed him too. "I really, really loved every minute of it." 

He added: "Up until I turned 26, I spent all my time investing in my career. From 26 on, I've invested in me; my spirituality, my recovery, my marriage, my family. A lot of it has been, excuse me, [expletive] hard. And no one has a perfect life, but I'm grateful for all of it."

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