A childhood with an ex-convict for a mother. Bullying in high school because of her fame.
Serious struggles with substance abuse. These are the most tragic details about Jodie Sweetin.
On "Full House," Jodie Sweetin's character, Stephanie Tanner, is raised by her dad, Danny,
Uncle Jesse, and her dad's best friend, Joey, after the tragic death of her mother. But in
real life, Sweetin lived a different type of traumatic story. She was adopted by family
friends after her mother — an ex-con — gave up her parental rights when Jodie was just a baby.
Her father died in a prison riot. As Sweetin shared on the "Steve-O's Wild Ride!" podcast,
"I am who I am, and I survived."
Explaining that she appreciates the good things in her life,
and that she's also grateful to have overcome her challenges, she said,
"That's life, right? Like, you sometimes start off in a s—ty place and then it's not so bad."
In 2021, Sweetin also revealed that she has since come to terms with her adoption.
As she told the "Allison Interviews" podcast,
"There's this point in your life where you finally kind of realize what happened.
That it no longer becomes something about you, that it's like, 'Oh, I wasn't wanted.'"
"They actually made the healthiest decision for me by allowing me to be adopted by
another family that could provide better." Sweetin became a bona fide TV star, thanks to 8
whopping seasons of "Full House." But in 2006, she revealed to ABC News,
"Growing up in the business you have to grow up very fast — you do have
a different type of childhood, that has its benefits and it has its drawbacks."
"How rude!"
Dealing with how to handle the series cancellation was one of the drawbacks.
Sweetin was just 13 years old when the plug was pulled on "Full House." According to the
Los Angeles Times, the cancellation occurred when the Season 8 finale was already underway,
leaving the cast, crew, and fans without a sense of closure. Sweetin explained to ABC,
"There is a certain sense of loss when a series ends. It is kind of hard to figure out who you
are when you've lost your job at age 13, when that was basically how you identified yourself."
Even while she was starring on the series, Sweetin was still enrolled
at a regular school and attended classes there as often as she could. But in her 2009 memoir
"Unsweetined," the star revealed she was teased in elementary school for her fame.
"I'm gonna transfer."
"Steph, I'm not gonna let you change schools."
"I wanna change dads."
The bullying didn't let up once "Full House" ended, either. In high school,
Sweetin was immediately targeted by people teasing her about her acting career. At a freshman dance,
when an older boy kissed her, she later found out that his girlfriend had dared
him to kiss the famous new student. Sweetin explained that rumors about her started early,
that she was never comfortable anywhere on campus, and that jokes about her "wrote themselves."
Sweetin has been candid about her struggles with substance abuse — including her very "Full
House"-centric origin story. In her memoir, the actor revealed that she first got drunk at age 14,
at her co-star Candace Cameron Bure's wedding. She wrote,
"That first drink gave me the self-confidence I had been searching for all this time.
That first drink, that was it — the key to everything I was missing
in life. […] All I can remember was feeling like absolute hell."
"It's no big deal. I went out and had some fun."
"Fine. You're home. Let's just drop it."
"Fine."
When she was still in high school, Sweetin started using cocaine. And she eventually started doing
ecstasy and meth. By 2004, her addiction had become so intense that she had wasted away to 102
pounds and was no longer hiding her drug use. That year, she snorted the meth she kept in a lip gloss
container at the premiere of the Olsen twins' movie "New York Minute." She recalled in her book,
"[I] was high as a kite. People […] could tell something was wrong and were shaking
their heads at me — judging, disapproving." In 2002, Sweetin married L.A.P.D. officer
Shaun Holguin. She was 20 years old, and reportedly wanted to focus on starting a family.
But a couple years into the marriage, Sweetin started regularly using meth. As she told People,
"It took six months from the first time I tried it to doing it all the time,
all day every day. […] It becomes this vicious cycle of doing it, feeling horrible afterwards
and then just wanting to get high again so you can escape feeling so low."
Four years later, Sweetin claimed that her law officer husband had no
idea any of this was happening. She explained to the outlet,
"The amount of lying and covering up was insane. I would be doing drugs in the bathroom
and Shaun would knock on the door, asking me if everything was okay and I would just lie to him.
I lied about why I wasn't sleeping, why I'd lost 30 pounds. I got down to about 100 pounds."
In 2005, an intense night of partying that landed Sweetin in the hospital
inspired her to get help. But in spite of her steps toward sobriety,
the damage to her relationship was already done and the couple was officially divorced in 2006.
After Sweetin went public with her addiction journey, she was asked to speak at colleges
and universities. But while she was hoping to inspire other young people, she revealed
in her memoir that she was still struggling to maintain her own sobriety at the time.
Just moments before she spoke to students at Marquette University in 2007
about beating her drug addiction, she had secretly done cocaine. She wrote,
"I stood up at the podium, looked around the room, and put on my best TV smile.
They didn't think I was coming down from a two-day bender of coke,
meth and Ecstasy, and they didn't think I was lying to them with every sentence that came out
of my mouth. I finished. They applauded. Standing ovation. Just how I liked it."
"Uh, I'd better not."
"How come?"
"I'm trying to quit."
Sweetin says she took the speaking engagements to earn money to fund her addiction. But she
also wanted her invented story of recovery and sobriety to be
true. In a confessional during her season on "Dancing with the Stars,"
Sweetin explained that her lowest point wasn't the hospital stint. Instead, she confessed,
"It was those quiet moments alone when I just hated the person that I'd become."
Sweetin got pregnant with her first daughter, Zoie, with then-husband Cody Herpin in 2007.
And she tried to stay sober for her child. But the actress relapsed in 2008,
just months after Zoie was born. She says she hit "rock bottom" when she drove Zoie in a car,
while under the influence. She recalled to Us Weekly,
"I had two glasses of wine and drove with her in the car. I not only put myself in danger,
but also my daughter, who I loved more than anything. I felt terrible."
"Now it's time for me to step up."
Sweetin finally got clean on December 7, 2008, when her rights as a parent were
suddenly on the chopping block. After using alcohol and Nyquil before a flight to L.A.,
Sweetin was informed that her drinking had triggered an emergency custody investigation.
It turned out to be the wakeup call that she needed. She told the outlet,
"From that day forward, I threw myself into going to AA and avoided
people who do blow off their coffee tables." In March of 2017, Sweetin made headlines for a
different aspect of her personal life. According to The Wrap, she had filed a restraining order
against her former fiance, Justin Hodak, after a "violent argument." As official documents noted,
Hodak was using marijuana and alcohol at the time, and reportedly threatened to kill himself:
"He then escalated the conflict by pulling down a seven-foot bookcase,
which blocked the doorway to the room that Sweetin was in, effectively trapping her there."
He then threatened Sweetin with a gun. As Hodak later recalled to the Daily Mail,
"Looking back I feel terrible for what happened, it went too far.
I'm super remorseful. I just don't know where it all came from, but there was no domestic violence,
I would never hurt Jodie. […] It was a situation that could have been avoided."
On September 27, 2018, Sweetin shared a private chapter of her story,
revealing in an Instagram post that she was a survivor of sexual assault. At the time,
she reportedly recognized her own experience during Christine Blasey Ford's testimony
about Brett Kavanaugh for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sweetin posted:
"I stand with her. I AM her. I was the girl who never reported because I blamed myself. I was the
woman who never reported because I didn't want to go through the pain and ridicule. […] I will
not sit still. I will not stay quiet. Although I may never be as brave or as unflinching in the
face of such an inquisition as [Ford] was today, it has given me hope. That maybe, just maybe,
female survivors of sexual assault may be heard. Even if our voice is barely above a whisper."
When she appeared on the "Allison Interviews" podcast, the star also
shared her approach to empowering women and raising strong daughters. Sweetin
is a human rights activist who uses her voice to advocate for others. She says,
"I think my most important lesson that I teach my daughters is how to be a strong woman
and to love yourself." Like many Hollywood types, and others before her,
Sweetin has struggled with her mental health — specifically anxiety and depression. In 2019, the
actor marked World Mental Health Day by raising awareness about those who struggle silently
with mental illness. Sweetin posted a picture alongside her daughters Zoie and Beatrix, writing:
"When our outsides look good, our insides can still be shattered. Those of us with
anxiety/depression/ptsd can walk through the world without anyone knowing just how broken they are."
Sweetin, who has been open about her journey with mental health,
considers medication to be an important aspect of managing her symptoms.
As the star explained on the "Allison Interviews" podcast,
"I struggle with stuff where I'm not getting out of bed. That's it,
I'm not doing anything. And that's not how I want to live my life."
Even though she actively works to balance her emotions and thoughts,
she admitted that the stress of life during the pandemic took a toll, causing her to
lose 37 pounds. She explained that she didn't feel she was in control of anything, adding,
"I have severe anxiety and depression
anyway, so it really didn't do any favors for my mental health."
Beloved actor and comedian Bob Saget's sudden death in January 2022
shocked the entertainment world and left a generation of TV lovers
mourning his loss. Many "Full House" fans who grew up on the '90s sitcom felt like they had
lost a surrogate dad. And Saget's TV daughters were all clearly rocked by his shocking passing.
"What's this for?"
"For being an involved, loving father who sticks up for his daughter."
Sweetin shared her thoughts and fond memories with Saget, posting on Instagram,
"There aren't enough words to express what I'm feeling today. Nor are they big enough
to capture even a slice of who he was. One thing I do know, is that we never missed a chance to
tell each other, 'I love you'. Every time we talked, there were at least 3 or 4 exchanged
at the end of a conversation. And he usually had to have the last word, 'I love you more.'"
As tributes and condolences poured in from fans and colleagues and other well-wishers around
the world, the actor followed up her message with even more memories of her adoring TV dad.
There was also a joint statement from the "Full House" cast that read:
"Bob made us laugh until we cried. Now our tears flow in sadness, but also with
gratitude for all the beautiful memories of our sweet, kind, hilarious, cherished Bob."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"I love you."
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the
Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness
helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.