Julia Rangiheuea has revealed harrowing details about her struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.
The former Big Brother Australia star, 31, has opened up about her years-long battle with addiction, which first started when she was a young teenager.
In a candid new interview, Julia recalled how she first started drinking when she was about 14 years old in year nine, and the following year she started using ecstasy.
After moving to Sydney from Perth at the age of 20, Julia started using cocaine and recalled wasting huge amounts of money on drugs and alcohol in the years that followed.
Then last year, Julia decided to give up alcohol and is now gearing up to celebrate one year of sobriety with an impressive feat.
She talked about her decision to stop drinking Perth Now: ‘I just said: my entire personality is based on alcohol.
‘I don’t know who I am without alcohol, I’m going to give up alcohol for a year.’
Julia Rangiheuea has revealed harrowing details about her struggle with drug and alcohol addiction, which started when she was just a teenager
In a candid new interview, Julia recalled how she first started drinking when she was around 14 years old in year nine and had started taking ecstasy the following year
Julia further reflected on her years of excessive partying in her 20s and said she wasted huge amounts of money on alcohol and recreational drugs.
“I had no idea what I was doing, and any invitation to chat was always based on drinking,” she said.
‘Suppose I get a thousand dollars a week. So it’s about $400 a week for rent, and then I would immediately take out $200 for alcohol.
‘And then I think: Susie’s birthday is coming up. I have to get a bag [of cocaine] before that.’
After getting sober last year, Julia now has 45.2k followers on her Recovering Party Girl TikTok account, where she shares stories about her addiction and sobriety.
In October, she also started hosting the podcast Soberly Speaking, where everyday people can share their own experiences with addiction.
The podcast focuses on stories of recovery and features participants talking about their path to sobriety.
Julia, who shot to fame when she entered the Big Brother house as an ‘intruder’ in 2022, previously revealed she was known as a ‘party animal’ growing up in Perth.
After becoming known as the ‘party animal’, Julia decided to give up alcohol and is now preparing to celebrate one year of sobriety with an impressive performance
“I’ve always been known as the party animal and the bender queen,” she said in an interview last year.
‘I was celebrated for these qualities, it became my whole personality. I’d even have strangers come up to me and say, ‘I heard you’re having a great time on the p**s.’
She described Perth as a “party town on the coast” and said drinking was just part of the culture when she grew up there.
She said the lifestyle “normalized” heavy drinking, including partying mid-week followed by “drinking all weekend.”
Julia said her alcohol consumption routinely consisted of downing two jugs of cider during dinner on a weeknight.
Excessive drinking then led the social media star to a period of intense anxiety after experiencing frequent hangovers.
She spent entire days in bed recovering from excessive partying.
After quitting alcohol in January 2023, Julia said sobriety has been a huge challenge, but giving up booze has made her happy.