Abby Wambach Opens Up About Drug, Alcohol Abuse

On a Saturday night in early April, Mary Abigail “Abby” Wambach hit rock bottom.

That’s the night police in Portland, Oregon, arrested the retired U.S. soccer star after she blew through a red light in her 2014 Range Rover, and charged her with driving under the influence of intoxicants.

In a new interview with The Associated Press, she says she’s been sober since and is getting treatment (as required by Oregon law based on her guilty plea and first-time offense). She also detailed a long history of drug abuse, crediting her arrest with forcing her to realize the extent of the problem.

“That night getting arrested was one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Because if I don’t get so publicly shamed and publicly humiliated, I don’t think I wake up,” Wambach told the AP. “I think I was asleep for a lot of years. Asleep to the pleas from my family and friends, and even myself, to get help. So that night I was humiliated enough to wake up.”

In addition to alcohol, Wambach says she abused pills, including Adderall, Ambien and Vicodin, adding that the addiction creeped up over time.

“This isn’t something that just snuck up on me when I retired from soccer,” she said. “This is something I’ve been dealing with for years now.”

On Tuesday, Wambach is set to release her memoir, Forward, in which she discusses her struggles and triumphs in greater detail.