Spencer Pratt has publicly challenged Ben Affleck over the actor's resurfaced remarks that «the cure for addiction is suffering,» reigniting a debate about addiction, recovery and homelessness in Los Angeles.
The backlash began after a clip from Affleck's 2021 appearance on «The Howard Stern Show» circulated online. In the interview, the 53-year-old Oscar winner, who has spoken openly about his long battle with alcoholism, argued that personal anguish rather than formal treatment programs was what ultimately forced him to confront his addiction.
«I hate to say it, but the cure for addiction, the only cure I've seen, and not like these f------ overpriced rehabs or a lot of these fraudulent fixes that are sold to people,» Affleck said. «Alcoholics Anonymous, I think by and large, is a good organization. It's not the only one. The cure for addiction is suffering.»
He added: «You suffer enough that something inside you goes, 'I'm done.'» Affleck said he reached that point after realizing how much his addiction had affected his children. «I recognized it. It was the worst day of my life. I made amends,» he said.
Pratt, 42, reposted the clip on Monday and criticized Affleck's viewpoint in sharply worded social media posts. «I'd love for Ben to join me on Skid Row and explain his addiction theory to the methed out psychos skinning dogs alive and sleeping in their own feces,» Pratt wrote. «Plenty of suffering out there, and yet... somehow the addiction persists. I wonder what the difference is...»
The former reality television star and one-time Los Angeles mayoral candidate has made the city's addiction crisis a central issue of his public life. Pratt lost his home in the Palisades Fire in January 2025 and announced his mayoral run on the one-year anniversary of the disaster. During the campaign, he argued that fentanyl and methamphetamine were driving much of the city's visible homelessness. «LA doesn't have a homeless problem. We have a drug problem,» he said in March.
Pratt repeatedly called for active intervention, including placing people with severe addiction into involuntary treatment under California's expanded conservatorship law, SB 43, saying many are incapable of seeking help on their own. In May, he presented a five-step plan focused on addiction treatment rather than housing. The plan included building large rehabilitation campuses on federal land outside residential neighborhoods, ending taxpayer-funded distribution of drug paraphernalia, enforcing existing drug laws and partnering with the Drug Enforcement Administration to target fentanyl dealers, organized drug trafficking and international cartels operating in Los Angeles. He also called for cracking down on organizations that he accused of busing addicts into the city from other states to receive services.
During the campaign, Pratt highlighted reports of abused dogs on Skid Row as another consequence of the drug crisis. He also criticized opponents, including Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman, for spending billions on homelessness without adequately addressing addiction. Since conceding the race in June, Pratt has continued to use social media to weigh in on addiction, homelessness and public safety issues.
Affleck, meanwhile, has been candid about his recovery for decades. He first sought treatment for alcohol addiction in 2001 and returned to rehab in 2017 and 2018. He has described alcoholism as a lifelong struggle and has acknowledged relapses along the way. The «Argo» star has said his three children — Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14, whom he shares with ex-wife Jennifer Garner — have been a driving force in his commitment to sobriety.
In a 2020 interview with ABC News, Affleck said growing up with an alcoholic father motivated him to stay sober. «My dad, he was drunk every day and that was just life,» he recalled. «Then as that got worse, that was really, really painful. But I always said, that would never be me. I am never going to do that.»
«I wish he had been sober during those formative years, but what he's taught me is how important it is for me to be sober now during these formative years for my kids,» Affleck said. «I really don't want my children to pay for my sins, or to be afraid for me, which is one of the hard parts of being the child of an alcoholic.»
