Marlee Matlin Celebrates 31 Years of Sobriety: 'I'm So Grateful'

Marlee Matlin says she has a lot to be thankful for as she celebrates 31 years of sobriety.

The Oscar-winning actress, 52, shared a photo on Twitter Wednesday smiling as she proudly held up her 31 years clean chip commemorating the occasion.

“Ending my day, so grateful that today, I am celebrating exactly 31 years of sobriety. #grateful#thankful#sober,” the former Dancing with the Stars contestant tweeted.

Matlin previously battled drug and alcohol abuse and was in rehab when she found out about her Oscar nod for 1986’s Children of a Lesser God. The starcredits Betty Ford for helping her beat her addiction three decades ago.

“[Betty Ford] and Betty Ford Center helped me beat my addiction,” Matlin Tweeted when news broke of the former first lady’s death. “She was an angel to many.”

In her memoir I’ll Scream Later, Matlin addressed her addiction and the reason she decided to enter rehab.

“It should have been the best time of my life. And in a surreal way it was. I had won a Golden Globe for my performance as the deaf, angry young woman in the film Children of a Lesser God. But that night I closed the door on Hollywood — at least for a time. Only a handful of people knew I was going to rehab at the Betty Ford Center the next day. I had virtually no support for my decision,” she penned in her book.

In an interview with CNN in 2010, Matlin revealed at 11 she was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a 16-year-old female babysitter.

“I masked it, and I covered it up,” she said. “And I masked it with drugs. And I masked it at a very early age with drugs. …I never told anyone. I never told my parents. And yet, I never forgot it.”

The Switched at Birth actress said she was abused again when she was 14-years-old by a high school teacher.

“It was a teacher who I looked up to and became friendly with,” she explained. “At the time… I wanted good grades, you know, and I wanted his approval.”

She continued, “And I didn’t think it was illegal. I mean that didn’t even pop in my mind. I was never told what was right and what was wrong about the situation. And at the time, I’m thinking it’s wrong because he’s married.”

Since getting sober, Matlin has changed her life, marrying retired police officer Kevin Grandalski in 1993 and the going on to have four children with him: Sara Rose, 21; Brandon Joseph, 17; Tyler Daniel, 15; Isabelle Jane, 14.