Elizabeth Vargas Talks Sons’ Reactions To Learning About Her Battle With Alcoholism

Elizabeth Vargas, the ABC News anchor, continues to discuss her ongoing battle with alcoholism – including her sons’ reactions to it.

Elizabeth Vargas Alcoholism

Last week, Vargas gave an interview to Diane Sawyer on a 20/20 special to talk about her addiction to alcohol, and how it started to affect both her personal and professional lives. When the special aired, Vargas had watched it with her two sons with her ex-husband Marc Cohn – Zachary, 13, and Sam, 10.

“They knew everything already, I would never put them in the position of learning something for the first time on national television,” Vargas explained on Good Morning America Monday morning. “So I had taken care to tell them everything I wrote about in my new book [ahead of the 20/20 interview].”

Though Zachary and Sam were prepared for much of what Vargas discussed with Sawyer, they were caught by surprise to see a clip of her struggling to interview Katy Perry back in 2012 while hungover after drinking earlier in the day.

“The one thing they hadn’t seen or heard before though were the two snippets of tape we managed to dig up and find where you could see me very hungover at a shoot,” Vargas revealed. “And Zachary turned to me and said: ‘Mom, you looked really bad.’ And he was right.”

Vargas’ book, Between Breaths, will be released Tuesday.