(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Rob Lowe says becoming sober "changed [his] entire life".

The 47-year-old actor gained notoriety as a playboy in the early days of his career and was often in the spotlight for a number of personal indiscretions.

The American star, who is famed for his portrayal of Sam Seaborn in The West Wing and his role as Senator Robert McCallister in Brothers & Sisters, is now sober and couldn't be more happy.

"I've been sober now 21 years, so when I got sober it changed my entire life. It enabled my personal life to catch up to the level my professional life had already reached," he said in an interview with BBC.

Rob insists although he drank a lot of alcohol, he was always "fun". But the hunky actor knew he had to give up life in the fast lane when he was seriously considering a family life.

"I was fun, I was a good drunk. I was fun. You'd have liked to have been with me. A lot. I had a great time but it eventually caught up with me and I knew if I wanted to get to the place I wanted to be in my life which was married, children, like a literal good life, I was never going to do it if I was continuing my wild ways," he revealed.

The actor has two sons with his make-up artist wife Sheryl Berkoff; Matthew Edward Lowe, 17, and 15-year-old John Owen Lowe. Rob says his personal memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends, which was released this month, is a "handbook" for his teenage boys to understand his past.

"They've absolutely read the book. I think because they're 15 and 17 they're like, Dad, you did!' One of the nice things about the book I think, I hope, is that as a father it's a handbook to understand dad a little bit," he explained. (C) Cover Media