Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.
Pete Davidson has opened up about what pushed him to get sober as he returns to the stage following a break from comedy.
The 32-year-old has made several major changes in recent years, including reportedly spending $200,000 removing around 200 tattoos. He also became a first-time father after he and model Elsie Hewitt announced the birth of their daughter in December last year.
Davidson has long been candid about addiction and mental health, and he has now shared more detail about the decision to stop using substances and what helped it stick.
The Saturday Night Live alum discussed the shift during a stand-up set at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on Saturday (April 11), where he told the audience he had returned to rehab — and that his mom played a decisive role in his recovery.
“I went to rehab this time,” Davidson disclosed, revealing: “I was like, ‘I’m gonna I’m gonna actually do it so I could save some of this money I’m making and stop blowing it on rehab.’” Per footage obtained by Us Weekly, he said he later had a conversation with his mother, who spoke about how painful it had been for her to watch him use drugs.
He said: “I did family week, [which is] when, with your therapist, you Zoom your family and they tell you how difficult it is for them to watch you do drugs.”
During that exchange, Davidson said his mom told him it was ‘hard to be your mom’, calling it ‘not a fun job’.
To this, he said he was thinking at the time: “Well, you’re not f**king that special. What do you do?”
“She went, ‘Enough.’ She f***ed me up. She was, like, ‘Peter, ‘It’s very hard to be your mom because I wake up every morning with the fear that I’ll turn on the news and see that my son has died,’” Davidson told the crowd, adding: “She told me all this on Zoom — from the house that I bought her on drugs. I was like, ‘Someone’s getting used to things.’ That got me sober.”
He described the moment as ‘brutal’ and said he has now passed the one-year mark of sobriety.
Elsewhere in the set, Davidson also joked about life after welcoming a baby, including how it has changed the way he thinks about watching porn.
Disclaimer: It was a joke.
He said, as reported by Us Weekly: “[I] got a little girl. It’s weird having a little girl.”
Davidson said it’s ‘hard to watch porn… in front of her,’ before adding: “I still did. I power through.”
Davidson and Hewitt announced Scottie’s birth last year, describing her as ‘our perfect angel girl’ and sharing that she arrived 12/12/2025’.
Her name, ‘scottie rose hewitt davidson’, is a tribute to Davidson’s father Scott, who died while serving as a New York firefighter during 9/11.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can call American Addiction Centers on (313) 209-9137 24/7, or contact them through their website.