Josh Brolin Talks Relationship with Stepmom Barbra Streisand, How She Helped Him with Sobriety

During an appearance on Monday’s episode of SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, the actor — who has been sober since 2013 — shared how Streisand approached his past alcoholism, recalling the time when she called him out when he asked for a drink.

Brolin, 56, who is promoting his memoir From Under the Truck, first shared the story earlier this week during an interview with The Sunday Times. The Dune star recalled how he once walked into his father, James Brolin and Streisand’s house and requested a glass of red wine, with Streisland allegedly replying, “But aren’t you a drunk?”

Stern brought up the moment during his conversation with Brolin, saying he was “moved” by the story.

“And that’s why I appreciate her a lot,” Brolin replied after Stern recalled the anecdote. Then, the Goonies star got candid about his relationship with his stepmother.

“I mean, we argued for years, you know, because she was very straightforward,” he said. “And probably reminded me, in some way, of a much more healthy version of my mother.”

“She was this kind of, like, typical Jewish mother who was like, ‘You can’t do that because that would hurt you. You know, you gotta eat. You look too skinny.’ … She’s like, ‘Why would you drink? You’re an alcoholic,'” Brolin continued.

He added, “I love that level of honesty, regardless of my reaction. I’m like, ‘Look, you’re not gonna stop me from doing what I want to do. I’m an adult.’ And she was like, ‘No. You’re an alcoholic. I’m not gonna give you wine. Alcoholics can’t drink wine because it’s bad for them.'”

Stern noted that with Streisand, “It’s always been the case, in her way, a language that took me a while to learn and that I fully embrace now.”

Brolin detailed his struggles with his alcohol and sobriety journey in his memoir, From Under the Trunk.

“I was born to drink. I was birthed to drink. My mother drank exactly like I did, and I was raised to be a man and drink like the male equivalent of my mother,” he wrote, per The Sunday Times.

According to the outlet, Brolin — who is the son of legendary actor James Brolin and his first wife Jane Agee — was only nine years old when he first tried marijuana and 13 when he dropped acid for the first time.

As The Sunday Times noted, Brolin struggled with alcohol abuse during his twenties, thirties, and early forties, but had some periods of sobriety. He said that he tried his best, but was not always successful, in hiding his drinking from his two eldest children, Trevor, 36, and Eden, 29, whom he welcomed during his marriage to his first wife, Alice Adair.

The Oscar nominee divorced Adair in 1994, and later married Diane Lane in 2004, before the pair divorced in 2013. Brolin went on to tie the knot with Kathryn Boyd a few years later. The couple shares two children: Westlyn, 6, and Chapel, 3.

During his interview with The Sunday Times, Brolin said that he made the decision to quit drinking for good in 2013. According to the True Grit star, the moment came after he woke up hung over on the pavement outside his house, and remembered that the had gotten into a fight at a fast food drive-thru. He said he then went to his 99-year-old grandmother’s house, and realized that while his grandma was nearly 100 and on her deathbed, he still had half of his life to live — and wanted to spend it sober.

“I knew that was going to be the last time I drank,” he recalled.

After he made his decision, Brolin went to rehab, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and celebrated 10 years of sobriety last year.

“I like getting older. It’s like a great excuse to finally go, ‘OK, just mellow out, you don’t need to constantly spin,'” he told The Sunday Times.

From Under the Truck is available now.