The Olsen twins walked away from Hollywood to create a fashion empire, and they did it
all while maintaining an impressive level of privacy.
But it wasn't easy work, as it turns out, being two of the most famous twins on the
planet is more challenging than you'd think.
They never asked for this
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's fame was sort of an accident.
Their ascent to American media royalty apparently wasn't planned by any means, even if they
did grow up in the San Fernando Valley, which houses Hollywood's upper echelons.
According to Rolling Stone, the pair's mother sent a photo of the twins to a casting agency
that was represented by a friend on a total whim, charting a course to show business before
they were even six months old.
Since infants can only legally work about 20 minutes at a time, the twins were seen
as potentially being a living, breathing, two for the price of one deal.
They got the job, but that doesn't mean they liked it.
John Stamos is the first to admit that the Olsens became a tough sell, and he even tried
to get them fired.
He told Entertainment Weekly that they cried a lot, which sometimes made work difficult.
At one point, they were actually recast, but for whatever reason, the new arrangement didn't
work out.
So the Olsens were re-hired.
Even then, The Washington Post reported that Mary-Kate ended up filming most of Season
1 herself, because Ashley was reportedly too afraid to come on set at the time.
Maybe she was just mad at Stamos for trying to put her out of work.
"Hey, shut up!"
In truth, neither of the twins particularly enjoyed their acting careers, at least not
in retrospect.
In a 2010 interview with Marie Claire, Mary-Kate revealed that the pair felt like, quote, "little
monkey performers."
In a heartbreaking reveal, she told the outlet,
"I look at old photos of me, and I don't feel connected to them at all…I would never wish
my upbringing on anyone…"
The final countdown
If it wasn't bad enough that the Olsen twins were thrust into a level of fame they never
asked for, the pair had to endure a creepy onslaught of headlines counting down to their
18th birthday.
E! News creepily rejoiced with the headline "Jailbait No More," and some guy even created
a website called Twin Tracker that compared the Olsen' twins current ages with the legal
age of consent in all 50 states.
He subsequently received a cease-and-desist order from the twins' lawyer, demanding that
he remove images of the Olsens from the site.
Though the twins told E! News that the creep-factor just comes with the territory, that doesn't
mean it's not upsetting.
In a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone, Ashley Olsen admitted she got angry and defensive
when journalist Connie Chung asked the pair about their virginity before they were even
of age.
She recalled to the publication,
"I was like, 'That's personal.
Why would you be asking a sixteen-year-old that question in the first place?'"
Mary-Kate Olsen's intervention
As the creepy clocks counting down to the Olsens' 18th birthday ran out, Mary-Kate Olsen
was struggling with something serious behind-the-scenes.
Rumors floated around about a possible drug addiction, noting the star's stark thinness
and the habitual rumors of hard-partying that surrounded her.
Even the Olsens themselves poked fun at Mary-Kate's weight, playing paparazzi in an episode of
Saturday Night Live and shouting at themselves on the red carpet.
"Mary-Kate, you're too skinny, eat a sandwich!"
In truth, the child star was suffering from anorexia, and she didn't get treatment until
she was faced with an intervention.
According to People, Mary-Kate's family entered her into a treatment facility in Sundance,
Utah right after she graduated from high school and before she started classes at NYU.
People reports that the Olsen family first tried to encourage the star to eat through
their own methods.
They reportedly confiscated her Range Rover, telling her she needed to gain some weight
in order to get it back.
Another source told the magazine that the family had also hired someone to independently
monitor her eating.
That definitely sounds like a fun time for everyone involved.
At the time of the intervention, Mary Kate was 17, which meant she had little to say.
Her parents were still her legal guardians, though she chose to continue out-patient treatment
during her first semester at NYU.
Spencer Pratt sold them out?
Leave it to The Hills' villain Spencer Pratt to rat out the Olsens and break the sacred
trust of mutual fame.
In a 2007 Details article, Pratt claimed to have made $50,000 by selling a photo of Mary-Kate
appearing to drink alcohol at a party.
Pratt's photo launched an all-out war that got him eviscerated on the Late Show with
David Letterman by Mary-Kate's passive aggressive jabs.
"Well Spencer Pratt..."
"He was on this show."
"Yeah, I knew him in high school."
"What a little worm that guy is."
"I know."
He went direct-to-tabloids with his nasty retaliation, dubbing her "a famous troll"
and "the less cute twin" in Us Weekly.
He later sort of apologized, telling Us Weekly that he was just secretly jealous of her,
and acted out because he wanted to see his face on a lunchbox, too.
"His behavior doesn't surprise you, right?"
Asking for help
Mary-Kate Olsen managed to hide her eating disorder for a great while, particularly from
her co-workers on New York Minute.
Director Dennie Gordon told People that he, quote, "had a lot of meals with her, and it
didn't seem there was anything wrong."
She even fooled Dr. Drew Pinsky, of Celebrity Rehab fame, who starred as the twins' dad.
He told People,
"She was the sweetest of the two.
But I didn't notice anything.
She hid it well."
This is common among eating disorder patients, but following her treatment, Mary-Kate seems
to have reckoned with the truth.
In a 2008 ELLE profile, the star publicly addressed her anorexia for the first time,
while somehow still not confirming if she actually had the disorder as was widely reported.
Being mindful with her words, she said,
"Look, I think it's important that what anybody goes through - and I'm not saying that it's
true or not true - you realize it's part of growing up.
Everybody is going to go through hard times.
It's a part of life."
The former actor further elaborated, telling Elle that asking for help and being honest
with herself was the hardest part about what she was going through.
Whatever the case, she said was ready to face her problems head-on.
As she put it,
"I do not want to go through my life with my eyes shut.
And I don't want to go through it with a closed mind.
I want to be aware of things.
And I'd rather know than not know."
Dropping out
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had high hopes for higher education, but their matriculation
was cut short after a reported invasion of privacy.
According to People, the twins graduated from high school and shipped off to NYU in September
2004.
They bought a $7.3 million West Village penthouse, which they reportedly never even moved into,
and began their short-lived time as students in the big city.
Then came the reports that the twins were, in the words of the Daily News, "sooo over
it."
Eventually Mary-Kate took a leave of absence, which led to speculation that she was entering
a second round of eating disorder treatment.
These rumors were reportedly false as Mary-Kate apparently already had access to a recovery
army during her first semester, including multiple nutritionists, coaches, and therapists.
Ashley soon followed her sister.
According to ELLE, the twins ultimately dropped out because they reportedly no longer felt
safe at school.
Their fellow students allegedly started selling stories to the tabloids.
Plus, they kind of had a majorly lucrative business to run.
A tragic death
Mary-Kate Olsen has a relatively low-key dating history, including artist Nate Lowman; Henry
Winkler's son, Max Winkler; soon-to-be ex-husband Olivier Sarkozy; and definitely, definitely
not Spencer Pratt.
Though she keeps her heart close to her vest, it's rumored that her most famous flame may
have also been the most tragic.
According to People, Heath Ledger and Olsen had been casually dating for three months
at the time of his death in 2008.
Tabloids touted the never-confirmed romance following a New York Times report that revealed
that the masseuse who found Ledger unresponsive in his apartment made two phone calls to the
Full House star before calling 911.
After the calls to Mary-Kate, the masseuse reportedly dialed 911 and tried unsuccessfully
to revive the star.
Ledger's death was ruled an "accidental overdose of prescription medications," and there were
rumors that Mary-Kate was involved in a federal inquiry into whether or not the painkillers
found in his system had been illegally obtained.
The investigation was ultimately dropped.
Retreating from fame
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen might have made a fortune from their fame, but they largely
retreated from the public eye since MK last appeared on-screen for a minor role in 2011's
widely derided Beauty and the Beast-inspired fantasy romance film Beastly.
Today, the pair is a Hollywood enigma, cloaked in oversized couture and long, tousled tresses,
heads pinned together in the odd red carpet photo at meticulously chosen events, like
the Met Gala or New York Fashion Week.
Mary-Kate told Net A Porter's The Edit in March 2017,
"We're used to being on the other side of the camera and managing the process, so it's
hard for us to do photoshoots now."
You won't catch them as influencers, either.
Unlike the leagues of fellow A-listers who give fans immediate access to their lives
through social media, Ashley told The Edit that they keep away from the online world,
and have instead stayed sheltered away from it.
They only posted their first public selfie, a momentous occasion that garnered numerous
headlines, when they took over Sephora's Instagram account to promote Elizabeth and James in
2016.
It was, as expected, effortlessly chic, but don't expect a repeat.
The pair have fully shunned their roots, even ditching out on the Fuller House reboot.
Sued by workers
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's luxury labels are largely praised across the fashion industry,
at least among those who can afford to pay $6,500 for a dress.
It may be unattainable for the average person, but the price point is not dissimilar from
competitors like Bottega Veneta and Lanvin.
According to The Wall Street Journal, even a $39,000 alligator backpack The Row sold
in 2011 managed to sell out of stock.
In 2015, the Olsens were attacked by some of their own.
Interns from The Row filed a class-action lawsuit against Dualstar Entertainment Group,
accusing the Olsen's management company of wage theft.
The lawsuit was led by a former design intern who claimed she had endured grueling 50-hour
work weeks under the Olsens, with duties that amounted to the work of three interns.
At one point, she was even allegedly hospitalized for dehydration after carrying a heavy wardrobe
haul in 100 degree weather.
She told Page Six,
"You're like an employee, except you're not getting paid.
They're kind of mean to you.
Other interns have cried.
I'd see a lot of kids crying doing coffee runs, photocopying stuff."
The suit claimed The Row's interns should have been paid minimum wage and overtime because
they were doing the same work as regular staff.
Reps for the brand reportedly called the lawsuit "meritless" but settled out of court, reportedly
agreeing to split $140,000 among 185 interns.
Mary-Kate's bitter divorce
Mary-Kate Olsen's marriage to French banker Olivier Sarkozy is coming to an end, and things
have reportedly been getting ugly behind closed doors.
TMZ reported that Mary-Kate initially signed divorce papers in April 2020, but NYC had
put a temporary pause on divorce filings because of COVID-19.
The following month, she requested an emergency order claiming Sarkozy terminated their lease
behind her back and was trying to force her out of the apartment.
He allegedly gave her a May 18th deadline to remove her belongings, which was reportedly
impossible because of the city's quarantine guidelines, then conveniently ghosted when
she asked for an extension.
Basically the So Little Time star has too little time to move her stuff before Sarkozy
throws it to the curb and the divorce filing may be the only way she can protect said stuff.
According to E! News, Mary-Kate has been staying with Ashley and a group of friends at an undisclosed
location outside of New York City, and is enjoying being done with the constant drama
of her dissolving marriage.
At least she has a prenup!
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Nicki Swift videos about your favorite celebs are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.