Those images circulated widely at the time and prompted public concern. Delevingne said the photographs were not the start of the crisis, but a moment when the private damage became visible.
Why she says drug use began as escape and connection
Delevingne said drugs initially felt less like self-destruction and more like a way into a version of herself she wanted to be.
“When I first started doing drugs, it was that seeking connection,” she said. “And I felt like I found myself, you know? I was fun. And I loved music. And I loved dancing. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is someone I really like. This is really cool.’”
She also said that her relationship with drugs began early, before she had money of her own.
“It was at a pretty young age I started, because I didn’t have money at that point, I started buying drugs to sell them and to do them,” she told Cooper.
What began as something social eventually changed shape. Delevingne said she now understands that using substances alone was a major warning sign.
“I knew it was bad when I started doing them alone and how much I liked that and how much I knew that people weren’t judging me,” she said. “And I didn’t judge myself for it. And I could disappear. And that, I knew it was a problem.”
How fame helped hide the scale of the problem
Delevingne said her career success made it easier for people around her, and for herself, to avoid naming what was happening. She was still working, still earning, still appearing in public with the usual machinery of celebrity image-making around her.
“When you’re successful and when you seem you are doing great, you have your hair and makeup done, it’s kind of fine,” she said.
She added that the professional ecosystem around a high-profile performer can discourage difficult conversations.
“People make excuses, people are making money. You are paying for people’s lives and jobs and kids, you know, you don’t wanna stop. You don’t wanna say no.”
The Suicide Squad actor said even those who thought they saw her at her worst did not understand the full extent of it.
“If I say I was good at hiding it, people would be like, ‘No you weren’t.’ But if people thought it was bad, what they saw, they didn’t see half of it,” she said. “The damage was really being done alone because that’s where no one could stop me.”
Her mental health worsened at the height of her career
Delevingne also spoke about suicidal ideation returning during what, from the outside, looked like one of the strongest periods of her career. She said fame did not resolve her internal struggles. If anything, it sharpened the contradiction between how her life appeared and how she felt.
“I think the kind of suicidal ideation came back around when I was at my height of fame, when I should have been the most happy,” she said. “And I felt the most guilty and I felt the most, like I didn’t deserve any of it. And I was so close to ending my life.”
That detail is central to her account: professional success was not proof of stability. It was, in some ways, cover. The former Victoria’s Secret model said the public image helped keep the situation moving until it could not.
Why the Burning Man photos became a turning point
Looking back at the 2022 Burning Man images, Delevingne said she was not shocked by what they showed. She had already been living with that version of herself for years. The painful part was that everyone else could now see it too.
“I mean, I realized it was bad, but oh, it was horrible,” she said. “The shame, oh, the shame was really bad. Again, that was that part of myself that I hated, and I was hiding from everyone. So for everyone to see it, it was like f— the jigs up.”
She has previously spoken about getting sober after that period, but this interview offered some of her most specific comments yet about GHB, seizures and the medical reality of stopping.
Delevingne, who is now sober and preparing to release new music, said she wanted to be clear about the substances involved because she rarely saw people discuss the kind of addiction she experienced in public. It was a blunt account, not a redemption montage. Those tend to come with better lighting.
