KJ Apa is reflecting on a difficult period during his years on Riverdale and says a confrontation with co-star Cole Sprouse pushed him to rethink his drug use. On the July 21 episode of the Wildmen with Dylan Sprouse and Brendan Columbus podcast, Apa said Sprouse punched him in the face after learning he had relapsed.
According to E! News, Apa said the incident happened at a Vancouver strip club while Dylan Sprouse was also with them. He said he was using a lot of drugs at the time and described the punch as a “wake-up punch.”
Apa said he has now been sober for more than a year. He also talked about how hard it was to manage sobriety while filming the CW series from 2017 to 2023.
He said he has learned that he tends to abuse things that make him feel good, and he also recalled struggling with eating habits during the show. Apa added that leaving Riverdale gave him a chance to reevaluate his life and that getting sober was the first step in that process.
