Cara Delevingne has revealed that the viral photos of her at Van Nuys Airport in 2022 were taken shortly after she suffered a seizure while attending Burning Man.
Speaking candidly on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the British model and actress opened up about her struggles with substance use during that period of her life. Delevingne explained that she had developed a troubling routine, using GHB to help her sleep at night and cocaine to stay awake and energized during the day.
During the Wednesday (June 3) episode, the 33-year-old shared that the seizure stemmed from an undiagnosed physical dependence on GHB.
Elsewhere in the conversation, around the 1:15:00 mark of the interview, Delevingne reflected on her mindset toward relationships at the time, revealing that she had essentially given up on love after experiencing what she described as too many relationships.
“When you abuse yourself, you allow abuse to happen, right? That’s as probably far as I’ll go with that. But I think I was done with love and I was in a pretty hardcore time,” she said.
The actress used the interview to shed more light on a difficult chapter in her life, offering new context behind the airport photos that sparked widespread concern and speculation when they first surfaced in 2022.
Delevingne shared that although she had stopped using ketamine, she was still regularly taking a combination of GHB and cocaine before reconnecting with her longtime partner, British musician Minke. The pair first met while attending boarding school in England and later rekindled their relationship years afterward.
Reflecting on that reunion, Delevingne said it immediately gave her a sense of comfort she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
“And from the moment we re-met after school, I was like, ‘Fuck, you make me feel safe,’” she recalled. “And that is something I haven’t felt. And I am way more terrified of that than I’ve ever been of love.”
The actress and model went on to admit that she recognized she had developed a substance abuse problem and became determined to get sober following her extravagant 30th birthday celebration.
“I didn’t know how addictive that stuff was. I just thought I took it every day,” she explained. “I didn’t know that you really had to medically detox from it. And I started having seizures and…literally those photos were taken right after I’d had a seizure at Burning Man.”
Delevingne also looked back on the difficult period surrounding the birthday trip, revealing that despite renting a house for the occasion, the friends who were meant to be supporting her instead witnessed her self-destructive behavior unfold.
“I was so skinny and covered in bruises, and I just locked myself in this little tower and would barely come out,” she said.
The now-infamous 2022 photos showed Delevingne appearing distressed and disheveled outside an airport, prompting widespread concern from fans and media outlets. The following year, she told Vogue that severe sleep deprivation had played a role in her appearance at the time.
“It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point, it was like, ‘OK, I don’t look well,’” she said. “So in a way, those pictures were something to be grateful for.”
Delevingne added that after several interventions from people close to her, she ultimately checked herself into rehab, despite feeling unprepared for the process.
“All I knew is if I was continuing to go down the road I was, I would either end up dead or, like, doing something really, really stupid,” she said.
The candid interview offers one of Delevingne’s most detailed accounts yet of her battle with addiction, recovery journey, and the wake-up call that pushed her toward seeking help.
