“There’s so many times where I should not be alive…this has been an opportunity to be able to really give back.”
Jason Wahler has come a long way since The Hills debuted in 2006. Over a four-year period, the reality star was arrested for six different drinking-related charges and seemed destined to become another cautionary tale. But Wahler hit bottom, entered rehab (then entered Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew) and got sober.
Wahler has been very open about his journey to sobriety, even revealing on Instagram back in 2018 that he had relapsed but was back on the wagon.
Going Back To The Hills
The 32-year-old owner of Widespread Recovery spoke exclusively to HollywoodLife about addiction, The Hills reboot and a new addiction treatment scholarship opportunity. Wahler described his decision to appear on The Hills: New Beginnings, which aired this past summer and has been greenlit for a second season on MTV.
“The whole reason I did [The Hills: New Beginnings] is to just spread hope and look, I have nothing to hide. I mean, as everybody’s aware, I went through such a public battle with addiction, that, you know, it gives hope to those other people,” Wahler explained. “There’s so many times where I should not be alive. And I feel like this has been an opportunity to be able to really give back and to show people that, you know, you can do this and it’s not just a cake walk.”
In the original series, Wahler dealt with body image issues and his heavy drinking and womanizing were often a part of the show’s storylines.
“I was excited to go back and show, 12 years ago I was this drunk, womanizing, alcoholic, who has transformed his life, who has married, has a kid and gives back and does all this stuff. And then when I dealt with something with weight and other things that I was never privy to, and so I think those are things too, is being mindful of other issues that can arise. You got to take it one thing at a time.”
Scholarship Opportunity
Now, Wahler wants to give back. He has partnered with “There For You” singer Hilary Roberts and her Red Songbird Foundation which will offer a $100,000 scholarship to help a trauma victim living with addiction pay for treatment.
Nowadays, Wahler is focused on staying present and centered.
“Those were our solutions, and once I identified that, that it’s me, it’s the thinking, it’s the disease that’s centered in my mind and it’s something that I have to do on a daily basis to make sure that I’m taking control on that. Every day is a new day, right? And the biggest thing for me is living in the moment. The thing that I had to do to tackle… There’s life stresses. There’s things that come into your life that can take on chaos and different things. But it’s how I process things today.”
