Tiffany Haddish Says Being Sober Has Taught Her She’s Been ‘Way Too Nice Over the Years’ (Exclusive)

Haddish spoke to PEOPLE at the 3rd Annual Friendly House Comedy Fundraiser on April 7

Tiffany Haddish is opening up about being sober.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the 3rd Annual Friendly House Comedy Fundraiser on April 7, Haddish, 44, revealed the most important thing she's learned about herself during her sobriety journey.

“I've learned that I've been too damn nice. I've been way too nice over the years,” the actress and comedian tells PEOPLE. “I think people think... Because when you drink there's no filter.”

She adds, “But when I drank, there was a filter, okay? Because I would think really mean things, and want to say really mean things, but I just told myself not to say them. Now I say the s---.”

Related: Tiffany Haddish Pleads No Contest to Reckless Driving for Thanksgiving Holiday Arrest

“Now I say it. If I think it, I say it. That filter is gone,” she continues. “‘Oh, don't say nothing because you got alcohol in you and you might say something mean.’ Now I'm like, ‘Oh, I'm sober and this is what I really feel, so I'm going to say it.’ Because it needs to be said.”

In March, Haddish revealed she had been sober for over two months after she allegedly fell asleep at the wheel in Beverly Hills, California, and was charged with a DUI on November 24, 2023.

In January 2022, she was also arrested on suspicion of DUI and taken into custody in Georgia.

Speaking about whether she’s had people to lean on during her sobriety journey, Haddish tells PEOPLE, “Yeah, I don't trust them. I don't trust nobody. It's been me. I've been leaning on me. I stopped leaning on other people. And I started leaning on me more.”

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However, she says that it “wasn't hard” to be sober “because it wasn't like it was something I was doing on a regular basis.”

Haddish explains that she actually found it harder to let go of meat as a way of helping to ease the pain associated with her endometriosis.

“I love meat. I'm addicted to that,” she tells PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘Okay, I'm going to stop eating meat.’ Because I noticed, I went for like 30 days not eating any meat, and the endometriosis wasn't hurting as bad."

"It was way easier, let's blood clots, less this, less that,” she adds. “But not smoking weed, not drinking alcohol, has been very easy for me. I never really had a lot of vices, and every time I was partaking in those vices, it was around the time of me not being pregnant. So, hey.”

Related: Tiffany Haddish Enters Not Guilty Plea in Los Angeles DUI Case

Haddish also spoke about alcohol being present at many industry events.

“I really wish people would pay attention to this,” she says. “It's in every event, especially Hollywood events they're trying to pour alcohol down your throat. They're trying to pour this down. And it's for what? Why? If we all just be ourselves... And maybe yourself is a little reserved. Myself is very not reserved.”

She adds, “I'm actually a little more reserved when I'm really intoxicated, because I'm like, ‘Oh, I'm liable to say or do anything, so let me pull back.’ But now I'm like, you know what? You going to get the business. And that's what it is.”

While stating that she doesn’t look down on anyone who wants to drink, Haddish adds that she doesn’t need “liquid courage to be who I am.”

“You remember everything, and you have more fun, and you make more friends when you're sober," she tells PEOPLE. "But then you make the right friends."

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