13 Reasons Why star Tommy Dorfman reveals how his husband helped him get sober

Tommy Dorfman was a teenage tearaway who ended up in rehab at the age of 20. But the rising star, now 24, turned his life around and now has a leading role in 13 Reasons Why.

In Attitude’s June issue – available to download and in shops now – Tommy, who plays gay student Ryan Shaver in the hit Netflix drama series, opens up about his relationships with older men as a young teenager, his former drug abuse, and how the love of his life helped him to get sober.

Revealing he was doing “mostly cocaine and party drugs”, during his his late teens and early 20s, the actor admits his hard-partying ways left him fearing for his own life.

“I really thought: ‘I’m chic and I do drugs and I probably won’t live past 25’. That was kind of the mindset I had in my early 20s,” Tommy says.

“I think I knew for years I was gonna have to get sober. There is no way I could maintain what was going on in my life without dying. I met Peter, my husband, six months before I got sober and he was the first person who didn’t judge me for what I was doing, but just asked me about it.”

Recalling the moment he realised his husband helped him realise he needed to seek treatment, Tommy says: “We were in a cab and I’d missed the flight I was supposed to be on and I was just empty and he asked me ‘Why do you keep doing this if you’re not happy? I’d get it if you’re having a lot of fun, but you’re not having fun.’ And I was like ‘I know but I can’t stop’.

“Three weeks later I went to rehab… We met in November 2012 and I got sober in June 2013.”

You can see Tommy’s full show and interview in Attitude’s June issue, which also includes our 100 Bachelors of the Year. Buy in print, subscribe or download now.

In This Article: