Hannah Brown: The Bachelorette Drove Me to Drink … A LOT

Hannah Brown has come a long way since her turn as The Bachelorette.

But it hasn't always been easy.

During an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show this past Friday, the Alabama native opened up -- way, way up -- about how she felt in the wake of her run as this franchise lead..

Or, to be more specific, how she behaved.

“I’d never really been a drinker before and I was on TV, like, every Monday for an entire year and didn’t know how to handle how my life had so publicly been displayed,” Brown explained.

“[I] have always lived with a smile on my face and, you know, tried to pretend like everything was okay.

"But then when I was at home by myself, the only thing that was really giving me comfort was a glass of wine.”

The 27-year old was a rather polarizing presence on the small screen, mostly because she talked candidly about both her religion and also her passion for sex.

Hannah and Peter

In one memorable recollection, Brown admitted to sleeping with contestant Peter Weber four times in one night.

Hannah stood up strongly for herself throughout her season, but talked to Hall about her state of mind during The Bachelorette.

“[I have] no excuses for mistakes that I’ve made but also, I was not in the best place of life,” Brown said on the broadcast.

“And [I] didn’t know what resources I had to be able to get that help.”

Hannah Beast Pic

In her memoir, God Bless This Mess, Brown wrote that she would sometimes start drinking at 11 a.m. and "never really stopped" as the day went on.

"It was another way of avoiding the big problems, I guess," said the former beauty queen in this book.

Brown also confessed to Entertainment Tonight in November that she started drinking in the wake of her split from season 15 winner Jed Wyatt... after it came out that he had a girlfriend while filming the ABC program.

When things didn’t work out with her runners-up, Tyler Cameron and Peter Weber, her alcoholism only got worse.

Hannah Brown and Ty

“It was really interesting to see how it goes from one glass of wine, two glasses of wine, three glasses of wine, tequila,” Brown said back then.

“I’ve definitely reassessed how alcohol is a part of my life… You just are not going to find what your heart needs in that.

"I think just a lot of people, we do that. We kind of fill a void.

"I was definitely finding myself in that cycle.”

Hannah Brown and Peter Weber Backstage

To her credit, Brown has candidly discussed her struggles with depression and anxiety on social media.

In 2021, after watching Oprah and Prince Harry’s mental health docuseries The Me You Can't See, Brown shared the following on her her Instagram Story:

"It's not easy living with depression and anxiety or any mental illness, but conversations like these are so impactful to help us all feel not so alone on our mental health journey."

Hannah Sticks Around

The Dancing With the Stars season 28 champion continued to ET late last year:

“I’m really glad that I’ve gotten the help that I needed.

"The therapy, the emotional support that I needed to kind of deal with my own stuff going on inside my heart, and mind, and just my mental health, so that [alcohol] is not something that I go to for any type of solace.”

Brown also credits boyfriend Adam Woolard for the progress she's made.

Angry Hannah Brown

“We are people that do not find wholeness through each other but through becoming whole people as individuals that can then amplify each other’s growth,” she told Hall on Friday.

“And that is something that I don’t think that I’ve ever had is somebody that is equally encouraged and motivated by continuing to challenge and get better and move forward and grow in life as I am...

"[I] can really see the progress I’ve made just in how I view my relationship and how I view my relationship with myself."

We're so very glad to hear it.