Tell Me Lies star Jackson White was brutally honest about his issues with alcohol — and how his complicated relationship with late father Jack White contributed to his struggles.
During the Wednesday, February 18, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Jackson, 29, acknowledged how his mother, Katey Sagal, and dad Jack’s split affected him, saying, “It’s all f***ed up. It’s all f***ed. It’s all weird and now it’s on us to say, ‘OK, cool. I unpacked [those issues]. I figured it out. Goodbye.’”
It wasn’t easy for Jackson to face those complicated feelings.
“It’s not me. That’s the new thing because of therapy now,” he noted. “It’s too much. Like, figure yourself out and then let it go.”
Celebrities Who Have Complicated Relationships With Their Parents
Sagel, 72, and Jack welcomed Jackson during their marriage, which lasted from 1993 to 2000. Jackson announced his father’s death in 2024, writing via Instagram, “This guy taught me everything. We had ups and downs, as a man has with their father. But in the end it was just love.”
Jackson praised his dad at the time, adding, “He was an open book, a fighter, genuinely the funniest person my sister and I knew, and single handedly invented the loudest most powerful back beat of any drummer I’ve ever seen.”
In his tribute, Jackson noted that the drummer wasn’t “in pain anymore” after private struggles. Sagal reacted to the death of her late ex-husband in the comments section, writing, “I will always be grateful to your dad for you! Thank you Jack❤️🙏. Finally free.”
Keep scrolling for Jackson’s biggest revelations about his father — and how their relationship led to the actor’s alcohol struggles:
Jackson White Was Impacted by His Parents’ Relationship
Being a “child of divorce” affected Jackson White in his formative years. He told host Alex Cooper that he later caught patterns he picked up from the ups and downs he saw in mom Katey Sagal and dad Jack White’s marriage.
“I think everyone is inherently a little narcissistic when you’re coming up. That’s just what it is. When you’re a teenager, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God’ and then you go to college,” Jackson said before relating it to his Tell Me Lies character. “That’s what these characters all are. They’re just self-involved and you start not making yourself the victim.”
He continued: “Because you learn that there are consequences or that no one’s coming to the rescue and that you can’t just make it about yourself and you can’t weaponize your past and use that in relationships with your friends because people won’t stay anymore. They won’t. They won’t stick. They don’t wanna hang out with you if you’re doing that.”
Jackson White’s Complicated Relationship With His Dad Before Jack White’ Death
In response to a question about craving stability as a child, Jackson White recalled finding safety “in the wrong places,” adding, “And then in the right places. You copy your parents. My dad was a very complicated, amazing person. He was an incredible drummer and music was my whole life and my mom is an incredible singer and we grew up playing so much music and I learned all about music and I’ve been playing drums since I was a baby and it’s what I love to do and I took all those things from him.”
Jackson also took after his dad’s work ethic.
“He was a tour manager. He was a drummer. He ran s***. He was a very disciplined guy and I have so much of that and I apply that to whatever I can,” he detailed. “The flip side of that was he was on these big tours and he’d get off these tours and the lights would be off and he’d be quiet for months on end and he came from an extremely hostile upbringing. He didn’t have any tools to cope with it — not like we do in our time.”
This led to “a lot of drinking,” which influenced Jackson’s relationship with his father. “I drank a lot with him and [there was] just a lot of drinking and smoking with dad,” he noted. “So I totally grew up with an interesting — or with a skewed perspective on all that. If I wasn’t careful, I would let that run my life — especially when you start doing that when you’re young.”
Jackson recalled being 12 years old when he was consuming alcohol, adding, “That’s where it gets tricky.”
How Jackson White Resorted to Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Jackson White elaborated on how he started to lean too heavily on drinking, telling host Alex Cooper, “Fears like the core fear and then anger is a symptom and drinking can be a symptom and behavior is a symptom. But it starts with that. Like, ‘I’m not enough. I won’t be enough. People are better than me. I’ll be left. I’ll be alone. I’m not good enough to be here or to be with this person.’ Those thoughts start everything, and then everything else is you just start reacting.”
After using alcohol as a coping mechanism, Jackson recalled the moment he took a step back.
“I just got tired. I get tired of running on that. It’s exhausting to be unconscious. You don’t even know it’s exhausting — and thankfully I had a parent where my mom got her s*** together. She did. She got her s*** together a long time ago and I got to see that you can get your s*** together,” he explained. “So I had a really great example in my mom and I want a lot of things. I just want a lot of things in this life. I want a lot of family things, a lot of career things and if something’s stopping you from getting those …”
He added: “It’s that simple. If you’re being stopped from getting those things and you’re seeing signs that you’re not getting those things, if you’re missing your audition, if you’re s***** on the phone, if you’re reacting poorly, you just gotta focus on it. You gotta have that self knowledge though and consequences are what start pushing that into action and if you don’t have consequences, sometimes you can go on and on and on.”
Jackson White’s Wish for His Relationship With Late Father Jack White
“I wish I spent more time with him,” Jackson White shared about dad Jack White, who died in 2024. “We didn’t talk for long periods of time just because [of] life. But I got to be with him for the important times. You have an idea of your parent [though]. Maybe it’s like girls and their mothers or boys and their fathers, but they’re like superheroes.”
He continued: “Then you get to the age where you’re like, ‘Oh, if that’s Superman, we’re f***ed.’ That switch happened in the midst of all that chaos and it made us drift apart — and then we came together when we were both adults.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
