Rob Lowe Says He's Never Been 'Happier Personally, Professionally': 'I've Invested In Me'

Rob Lowe is opening up about his journey over four decades as a Hollywood star.

Lowe, 57, graces the cover of People this week, and in his cover story interview, the actor spoke about how happy and fulfilled he is at this point in his life.

"I've never been happier, personally or professionally [and] there's not a day that goes by where I'm not thankful about it all," said Lowe, who will celebrate 32 years of sobriety in May. "I have gratitude and profound humility for the gifts that I've been given, and worked for, in this world."

At the moment, Lowe is juggling his Fox series "9-1-1: Lone Star," two podcasts and a one-man stage show that was recently restarted after being paused during the pandemic. However, he said the most rewarding gig of his life is being a husband to his wife Sheryl, 60, and father to their two sons, Matthew, 28, a lawyer, and John Owen, 26, a TV writer.

Lowe's journey from teen idol to sober family man wasn't smooth. He struggled with alcoholism and a deep-rooted unease from a young age after navigating his mother Barbara's consecutive divorces and multiple moves.

However, he found solace in acting when he was a teen, making his feature film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders" and rising to stardom after the release of 1985's "St. Elmo's Fire." Lowe admitted that he emulated his "St. Elmo's" character, Billy Hicks, for years and spent his early 20s being the "wild, fun, rock and roll, quasi-debauched with the heart of gold" guy.

Lowe went on to date Melissa Gilbert and Princess Stephanie of Monaco and indulge in fast-lane living like his role models at the time, Keith Richards, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. He confessed that he "literally designed, consciously and unconsciously, my life around" their example.

"I tell my kids, be careful who your heroes are," he said.

Lowe then recalled watching "Shampoo," seeing Beatty left alone and broken at the end and thinking to himself, "Oh, this is how my life will play out if I don't figure it out." The actor said it took years for him to figure things out, but his fear had always been ending up alone.

"Intimacy and I were not very well acquainted until very late in my life," he admitted.

Lowe said he hit rock bottom when he was 26, when he listened as his mother left a message on his answering machine saying his grandfather had a heart attack. She pleaded for Lowe to pick up, but the actor did not.

"I remember going into the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror and my thought process was, 'You need to drink directly from this bottle of Cuervo Gold so you can go to sleep, so you can wake up, so you can deal with this,'" he said. "Out of all the things that had gone on in my life, that was the thing where finally I went, 'This is no way to live.' I went to rehab 48 hours later."

Shortly after that, he met Sheryl and instantly knew that she was the one for him. Sheryl was a renowned makeup artist at the time and now a jewelry designer and owner of Sheryl Lowe Jewelry.

"I had the feeling that if I was ever going to be able to make it work with anybody, it was Sheryl," he said of his wife. "Alcohol and drugs were only going to make that next to impossible."

Lowe and his wife tied the knot in 1991 and welcomed their firstborn Matthew in 1993. Two years later, they welcomed John Owen.

"Up until I turned 26, I spent all my time investing in my career," he said. "From 26 on, I've invested in me; my spirituality, my recovery, my marriage, my family. A lot of it has been, excuse me, f—ing hard. And no one has a perfect life... but I'm grateful for all of it."

Lowe is set to star in the upcoming Netflix movie "Dog Gone," which is currently in production.