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'I've been fortunate': Rob Lowe talks how sobriety saved his life and comedy rescued his career after sex tape with teen threatened to end it all

Published: 12:01 EST, 22 September 2015 | Updated: 14:11 EST, 22 September 2015

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How to survive a sex scandal by Rob Lowe.

Most celebrity advice is usually restricted to how to become an actor or how to make organic potpourri while cooking a 14 person dinner from small batch produce - but not when it comes to this star.

For the latest GQ - the October How To issue - the 51-year-old reveals how he at least overcame a sex tape scandal and alcoholism.

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Re-invention check: Rob Lowe has spoken on how his infamous sex tape helped him get sober and turn his career from pretty boy to funny guy in the new issue of GQ

Starring in three different covers for the magazine, the star says he has been very lucky that he was not kicked out of Hollywood.

The star told GQ: 'I've been fortunate that I've always, always, always worked. Even after the sex tape was made public, it was like: You're still a professional baseball player, but you're playing for Double or Triple A.'

Infamously in 1988 it was revealed there was a video of the star involving a 22-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl he met in a nightclub in Atlanta, Georgia.

Changing it up: Starring in three different covers for the magazine, the star says he has been very lucky that he was not kicked out of Hollywood but was forced to take different roles - something he says he could not be happier about

But while the girl was of the age of consent, she was too young to be videotaped, but additional footage of the star having a three some with a model and another male actor that was also widely circulated.

This was of course, in a time before Kim Kardashian and the sex tape as career starter so Rob's status as a leading man was downgraded.

Scandal: In 1988, it was revealed there was a video of the star (pictured at the time aged 22) involving a 22-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl he met in a nightclub in Atlanta, Georgia

The video also was the catalyst for the actor hitting rock bottom when it came to alcohol dependency.

Coming out sober on the other side, Rob says he was lucky in that the scandal did not cost him his career but did change is trajectory.

'I lost the role in Titanic that Billy Zane got. But I was never banned from the game.'

And getting back in the game, meant changing directions going from pretty boy to funny guy - something he says he does not regret.

'If you are in a transitional period, rebuilding period, a fallow period, go to the opposite end of your range - for me that was comedy

'Lorne Michaels and Mike Myers put me in Wayne's World and Austin Powers. What keeps people from doing that? You get fearful. If a certain play is working, if you've been passing for 200 yards, you don't all of a sudden start running the ball.

'But there was a moment when I was playing Eddie Nero on Californication, the senator on Brothers & Sisters, Chris Traeger on Parks and Recreation, and Drew Peterson [in a TV movie about the killer] - sometimes all in the same week. I thought: This isn't what I signed up for, but it's actually better than what I signed up for.

'If you would have asked me when I was 18 and one of the hot Young Turks on the scene what I wanted from my life, I would have completely sold myself short. I would have wanted the lead in the next Martin Scorsese movie.

'Well, I didn't get it. I still haven't gotten it. But I wouldn't trade it for what I have.'

The West Wing actor has previously said the video was a gift in that it helped him hit rock bottom, and from there not only did his career change his womanizing ways ended too, opening the door for him to fall for his second wife, Sheryl Berkoff.

Well, it did cost him that: The 51-year-old did get passed over to star in Titanic with the role going to Billy Zane, seen here with Frances Fisher, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio

The couple had been on a blind date years earlier, but reconnected a month after Rob finished rehab in 1990 and a year later, married.

'Ninety percent of moviemaking is casting. Same with life. When I met my wife, Sheryl, I knew I'd seen the perfect woman for the job.'

The sex tape also helped him find out who his real friends were with most in the industry cutting him out of their lives.

Silver lining: The West Wing actor has previously said the video was a gift in that it helped him hit rock bottom, and from there not only did his career change, his womanizing ways ended too, opening the door for him to fall for his second wife, Sheryl Berkoff (pictured May)

He told the magazine: 'Only two people called [after the sex tape]. Jodie Foster and Don Simpson [the producer]. Jodie and I had done The Hotel New Hampshire together, and she sent me a note with a recurring line from John Irving: ''Keep passing the open windows.'' She was saying, ''You'll get through it.'''

'Don basically said, ''F**k 'em if they can't take a joke.'' Oh, and Hugh Hefner took me aside at one point and said, ''You had to do it. The technology existed.'''

The star how has now been sober for 26 years says he stays on track by letting things go.

Coming soon: Rob can next be seen in new television show The Grinder with Fred Savage which premieres on Fox September 29

'For someone in recovery like me, the single greatest hurdle - the number one with a bullet that will make you drink - is resentment. You can't have it. People always say, ''How have you been sober 26 years? What's the secret?'' Well, that's it.

'I always feel there's enough room at the table. If somebody else is achieving more than I am, that means I can do it, too. Everybody has the ability to raise themselves up, and my life has been marked by that.'

The October issue of GQ is available on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Tuesday and nationally September 28, Rob can next be seen in new television show The Grinder with Fred Savage which premieres on Fox September 29.