What Do Celebrities Smoke? The Cigars and Cigarillos Behind Famous Names

Michael Jordan has said he used to light a cigar on the drive to home games in Chicago. Jay-Z put his name on one. Demi Moore built a reputation in the nineties for preferring small ones. When famous people smoke in public now, it is almost never a cigarette. It is a cigar, and the brand in their hand tends to become part of the story.

So what do celebrities smoke? Below is what is on the record, pulled from interviews and cover stories rather than rumor, along with what the rest of us reach for when a rare Cuban and a walk-in humidor are not in the budget.

How Cigars Became the Celebrity Smoke

A lot of it traces back to one magazine. When Cigar Aficionado launched in the fall of 1992, the cigar business was flat and its customers were aging. The magazine started putting famous faces on the cover and asking them, in detail, what they smoked and why. Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Demi Moore all sat for cover stories. So did supermodels Linda Evangelista and Claudia Schiffer, hockey great Wayne Gretzky and, twice, Michael Jordan.

That changed the image. A cigar stopped being something your grandfather smoked and became shorthand for a win: the championship locker room, the closed deal, the wrap party. Celebrities have been comfortable talking about their cigars ever since, which is why we know so much about what is in their humidors.

What Celebrities Smoke: The Names and the Brands

Michael Jordan

Jordan is the most famous cigar smoker alive, and the details come from him. He told Cigar Aficionado publisher Marvin Shanken that his favorite is the Partagas Lusitania, a large Cuban cigar, and the magazine has reported that he goes through about six cigars a day. Videos from those sit-down interviews have been viewed more than eight million times, a record for the publication.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Schwarzenegger has been a cigar fixture for decades, on screen and off, and has a Cigar Aficionado cover to show for it. A clip of him demonstrating his own smoking technique has passed 1.5 million views on the magazine’s YouTube channel. He also seems to recruit. Jim Belushi has said his favorite cigar memory is the first one he smoked with Schwarzenegger, sitting in a cop car on the Chicago set of Red Heat, and Danny DeVito reportedly picked up premium cigars from him while they were making Twins.

Jay-Z

Jay-Z took it further than most and made his own. He partnered with General Cigar’s Cohiba brand on the Cohiba Comador, a premium cigar developed with his team. On the personal side, he is widely reported to be a fan of Cuban cigars, with Montecristo and Ramon Allones named most often.

Jack Nicholson

Nicholson was one of Cigar Aficionado’s early cover stars and has been photographed courtside and on golf courses with a cigar for years. Reports on his preferred brands vary. Macanudo Maduro, Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo all come up.

Demi Moore

Moore is the best-known counterexample to the idea that celebrity smoking means oversized cigars. Cigar Aficionado named her to its list of the top 100 cigar smokers of the twentieth century and noted that she is partial to small cigars such as the Montecristo Joyita, along with the occasional Cohiba or Montecristo No. 2.

Jeff Bridges

Bridges reportedly keeps Fuente Don Carlos and Padron Anniversary cigars at home and likes to smoke on a hike or at sunset when he is not working. It is about as on-brand as a cigar habit gets.

Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna

Lopez has been photographed with cigars at clubs and events for years and is reported to favor Padron. Rihanna has made the cigar part of her visual style, most memorably in the video for Can’t Remember to Forget You with Shakira.

More Names From the Cover Archive

The list of people who have fronted Cigar Aficionado also includes Tom Selleck, Hugh Jackman, Dwayne Johnson, Usher, Nick Jonas and Metallica’s James Hetfield, who was the cover story in April 2023. The range says a lot. Cigars cut across action stars, musicians, athletes and pop acts.

What the Celebrity List Has in Common

Look across those names and a pattern shows up. Nearly everything on the list is a premium, hand-rolled cigar, often Cuban, often large. These are smokes that take an hour or more, need a cutter and a humidor, and are priced as a luxury. They fit a life with a cigar room, a golf membership and time to sit.

They are also tied to occasions. Jordan’s championship cigars and the wrap-party cigar on a film set are about marking a moment. That part translates to everyone. The hardware does not.

The Everyday Version: Cigarillos

Most people are not lighting a Lusitania on a Tuesday night. The more practical way into leaf-wrapped tobacco is the cigarillo, which is a small, slim cigar. It has a tobacco leaf wrapper like the big ones, but it runs three to four inches, lasts around 10 to 20 minutes, and needs no cutter and no humidor. Demi Moore’s taste for small cigars is the closest thing on the celebrity list to how most adults actually smoke.

Al Capone is one of the most recognizable names in that category. The brand’s line includes Sweets, which are dipped in cognac, Jamaican Blaze with a touch of rum, the aromatic Blues, and Gold, which skips the infusion for a straight tobacco taste. Most come filtered or unfiltered, and the brand also makes a tubed Sweet Cigar and leaf wraps. Its tagline is Real. Not ‘Perfect’, which is a fair summary of the difference between a pocket tin of cigarillos and a cedar-lined humidor.

Cigar vs Cigarillo vs Cigarette: A Quick Rundown

• Cigar. Tobacco filler rolled in tobacco leaf. Large, slow and built for flavor. Expect 45 minutes to two hours, plus a cutter and proper storage.
• Cigarillo. A small cigar with the same leaf wrapper. Ready out of the pack, finished in 10 to 20 minutes, available in natural and infused blends.
• Cigarette. Cut tobacco in a paper tube. Machine-made, uniform, done in a few minutes and usually inhaled, which cigars and cigarillos are not made for.

If you want the longer version, Al Capone’s breakdown of cigarillos vs cigarettes goes through how the wrapper, the build and the flavor differ.

Where to Find Cigarillos Near You

Unlike the Cubans on the celebrity list, cigarillos are easy to find. Convenience stores, gas stations and smoke shops carry them, with ID required. To track down a particular blend, use the Al Capone store locator to see which retailers near you stock the brand.

Frequently Asked Questions

What cigars does Michael Jordan smoke?

Jordan has said his favorite is the Partagas Lusitania, a Cuban cigar. He has spoken at length about his cigar habit in interviews with Cigar Aficionado.

Does Jay-Z have his own cigar?

Yes. The Cohiba Comador was created in partnership with General Cigar’s Cohiba brand.

Do celebrities smoke cigarillos?

Most of what is documented involves full-size premium cigars, because that is what celebrity interviews focus on. Demi Moore is a notable exception who is known for preferring small cigars.

What is the difference between a cigar and a cigarillo?

Size and commitment. Both are wrapped in tobacco leaf. A cigarillo is shorter and slimmer, needs no cutting, and takes a fraction of the time.

Why do celebrities smoke cigars and not cigarettes?

Cigars are linked to celebration and status in a way cigarettes no longer are. They are smoked occasionally and socially, and the brand itself carries some prestige.

Celebrity references in this article come from published interviews and press reports. None of the people named endorse or are affiliated with Al Capone or its products. Tobacco products are for adults 21 and older. Surgeon General’s Warning: Cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes.

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