The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Jodie Sweetin - SweetinDew

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

My HoneyDew this week is actress, Jodie Sweetin! (Full House, Fuller House) Jodie Highlights the Lowlights of being adopted, life as a child star, and her struggles with addiction. SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE and watch full episodes of The Dew every toozdee! https:/youtube.com/@rsickler  SUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON, The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I Highlight the Lowlights with Y’all! You now get audio and video of The HoneyDew a day early, ad-free at no additional cost! It’s only $5/month! Sign up for a year and get a month free! https://www.patreon.com/TheHoneyDew  SPONSORS: Liquid I.V. -Get 15% off when you go to https://www.LiquidIV.com and use code HONEYDEW ExpressVPN -Secure your online data today by visiting https://www.ExpressVPN.com/HONEYDEW and you can get an extra 3 months free

This is an important announcement, especially if you live in Los Angeles. I am shooting my special Wednesday, December 14th at the Dynasty Typewriter Theater here in Los Angeles. Tickets are available on my website right now at ryansickler.com. And here's the deal. If you use code SICKLER, and I'm telling you specifically you all, because you all are the diehards. If you use code SICKler, you're getting half off your tickets. All right? So we're going to do two shows, Wednesday, December 14th. Go snag those tickets up now.

I want a loaded house. Let's have a great time bringing an end to this Night Pants Nation tour for the special that you guys will see very soon, hopefully. Chicago. I'll be there November 11th and 12th. Grand Rapids, Michigan, December 9th and 10th. Get your tickets to those shows and all shows on my website at ryansickler.com.

The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to the howdy-do, y'all. We're over here doing it in the Nightpan Studios. I'm Ryan Sickler, ryansickler.com. Ryan Sickler on all your social medias. Listen, all seriousness here, this is episode 200,. I want to just really say thank you so much. I know this show makes a difference. I get flooded with emails and messages and just being out on the road and you guys coming up to me and telling me that this show has saved your life or it's the reason you started therapy or might even be the reason you connected with family again i just want to say thank you so much 200 episodes is a big deal and i'm very

grateful so um if you're watching out there on youtube please hit that subscribe button and if you gotta have more then check out the patreon it's called the honeydew with y'all and i tell you every week i highlight the low lights with y'all and y'all have the wildest fucking stories. Every week I am blown away by the shit and the inbox is ridiculous. All right. So if you or someone, you know, has a story that has to be heard, please submit it to honeydewpodcast at gmail.com. Um, if you sign up for a year, you're saving over a month. It's only five bucks. There's no other levels, layers, any of that shit. All right. I'm on tour right now. Go to Ryan Sickler dot com for all your tickets. There you go. Oh, Chicago, November 11th and 12th and Grand Rapids, December 9th and 10th. All

right. So Chicago, we're doing Friday, Saturday, Grand Rapids, same thing. All right. That's the biz. You guys know we do over here. We highlight the low lights. I always say these are the stories behind the storytellers. And I am very excited to have this guest on today. First time here on The Honeydew. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Jodi Sweetin. Welcome to The Honeydew, Jodi. Hello, hello. Very excited to have you here. Why, thank you. I am very excited to be here. I really want Honeydew right now because it's just that's all i see behind you i actually really do like i do i do yeah these are all fan submitted pictures of my favorites the cigarette one yeah yeah right and then there's like the spoon just

someone nobody wants it nobody wants it nobody wants i actually do like it it's all right yeah well then you're definitely welcome here why thank you um thank you for being our guest on episode 200 my pleasure i didn't realize i was going to be here for such a big occasion yeah we were excited i hope i don't make it uh i hope i don't fuck this up you're not gonna fuck it up you'd be surprised i'm just kidding um all right before we get into whatever we're going to get into will you please plug and promote everything and anything you would like? Yes, yes, yes. Let's see. I have my podcast, Never Thought I'd Say This, which has five seasons out. We're taking a short hiatus, and then we're coming back the beginning of next year, and we're going to start doing two-hour monthly specials.

So you can check that out, Never Thought I'd Say This, at Jodi Sweetin across all socialss it's s-w-e-e-t-i-n um what else am i working on right now i've got a couple holiday movies coming out a hallmark movie coming out october 28th uh and then a lifetime christmas movie merry swissmas coming out on november 5th i want to say oh yeah novemberth. Yeah, so I've got a couple of movies premiering. I am hoping to direct one either later this year or beginning of next. I am working on some comedy stuff. I do a monthly show called The SDSC Show. It's all online.

We have fans from all over the world. It's stand-ups, and we do comedy and games and all kinds of fun stuff. So check that out too, sdscshow.com. And it's like fun, ridiculous comedy. So, yeah, I'm sure I've got other things that I will remember. I'm working on a theater project right now with a group of incredible people. And, yeah, so I'm just kind of trying to dig into some creative stuff right now. It's exciting.

Very good. Yeah. And I love that you, you know, I forget that you work with Saget. So of course you have comedy roots. I do. And that's how I met you. I met you at the comedy store just, what, a couple weeks ago? Yeah.

Or like a week ago, maybe. I don't even remember. Right. So much life happens in a week now. But yeah, I think it was like a week ago. Yeah yeah and you and your friend came backstage and hung out you guys were super cool and uh yeah i'm really grateful that you came i'm i'm really grateful to be here i always love trying to help people and share my story and maybe make it funny let's talk about your story because i i want to know yeah everything i want to this is a life story episode. So start where the beginning, where are you originally from?

Mom, dad, brothers, sisters. I was born here in Los Angeles. I was born actually at downtown USC County Hospital. I was born to a woman named Barbara who was in jail at the time I was born. Is that right? Yes. Wait, so were you delivered in prison or jail? On whatever floor of USC County Hospital.

The one downtown, the general hospital, that one, that was where I was born. So they took her out of jail to have the baby. They take them out and they have the baby, right. And then you're- Hold on. This is not- Trust, you're going to- I'm not even kidding.

You're going to need like a notepad. And my family tree is sort of a bush that's like interconnected. Okay, I'll shut the fuck up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's all in my book, Unsweetened, which came out in 2009. And I keep getting asked if I'm going to write another book. And I don't know, there's something stirring in my head that I might so anyway um I was born uh to a woman named Barbara uh at USC County Hospital uh I was taken home by um a friend of hers and a friend of um the person of of my biological dad's um her name

was Cindy my biological dad uh was in jail at the time dad, uh, was in jail at the time. John, excuse me, he was in prison at the time. He was at Soledad prison, um, for bad checks and drugs. Uh, he was sent to a maximum security prison, uh, because the minimum security was overcrowded. He was supposed to be moved. I was about nine months old i believe when this happened uh he was supposed to be moved a couple weeks later uh and a prison riot broke out and he was stabbed in the heart and killed no uh yes so um he was obviously out of the picture um but his family had uh taken me in my mom was still in jail sort of in and out why was she in jail, sort of in and out. Why was she in jail? Drugs and bad checks. They all kind of got wrapped up in some stupid shit. And, you know, so that was where I started. And then Cindy, the woman who brought me home from the hospital, who is my biological dad's cousin.

Okay. me home from the hospital uh who is my biological dad's cousin okay cindy's dad sam uh is my adopted dad okay sam my dad would come and check on cindy and his ex-wife who had some mental health issues and make sure that everything was okay that there there were groceries, you know, he sort of was in and out. He and my mom had already been married. And they wanted kids. And I was, my mom at the time was not able to take care of me. And so they wound up adopting me. So technically, my dad's kids from his first marriage are by blood my cousin, but by adoption my half-siblings. Okay.

Right. So that's sort of the weird little, yeah. Sometimes you need a map. But my parents, my mom and dad, Sam and Janice, are wonderful, wonderful people. are wonderful, wonderful people. And I fell into an incredible life that I know I would not have had otherwise. I could have very easily been in the system. I could have very easily just wound up bouncing from house to house foster care, which was what my biological mom did.

She was on her own by the time she was 15. So I was fortunate. i wound up in an incredibly loving home with wonderful parents and uh i was bright i was i was smart um and so you know my my dad saw that my mom wasn't able to take care of me they adopted me and um my mom was a stay-at-home mom my dad was a uh superintendent at a gypsum plant in long beach harbor which is what drywall is made out of he started working there when he was like 17 18 years old and worked his way up to superintendent my dad came from uh he was born 1934 in oklahoma um came from a no electricity, no running water home with eight brothers and

sisters and lived in the Central Valley as a migrant farm worker as a kid. He was an Okie migrant in the 40s and worked his way up and became superintendent of a gypsum plant with very limited education. So my dad has done a lot and seen a lot. And my mom was an incredible stay-at-home mom. And she got me reading. She got me doing all of these creative things that I just love to do. And I really excel at. And then, you know, by the time I was three, I was reading books and able to memorize things and loved performing and loved dancing and told my mom I wanted to be a performer.

I wanted to be a modeler. That was what I called it. Mommy, I want to be a modeler. What was it that you saw or what resonated with you that planted that seed for you? Was it anything? I loved – I mean, I was the kid. I was an only child growing up. I loved, I mean, I was the kid, I was an only child growing up.

I was the kid who would find a harmonica and run into the middle of the room while my mom and grandma and aunt were having a conversation and be like, and now, da-da! Like stomping on my feet, doing a whole thing, twirl around and be like, and thank you. And then I'd leave. And you're out. Right. Just let her have it. It was just right my first dance recital i was like one row back and the bitch in front of me was like fucking it up so i was like look you got and i pushed her out of the way and i got it to the front so my mom was like maybe she likes to perform okay uh and and was like you know what the hell like okay put you in some print ads and maybe a couple commercials.

You know, what's going to come of it? And now I'm 40 years old and I've been in this business since I was four. Off and on. I mean, I've had stints in like, you know, quote unquote, the normal world. I worked in drug and alcohol treatment for a while. I worked at a school for a while. Did you? Yeah.

Doing what? Actually, my undergrad degree is in liberal studies with an emphasis in elementary education and a history minor. So I was going to be an elementary school teacher. That's what I got my bachelor's in. And I worked at a school after I graduated. Very nice. Yeah. So my story has a lot of offshoots and a lot of different components to it. Well, let's jump back to four because you said at four you actually get a paid job at four? I did. I was doing commercials.

I did a Sizzler commercial. I did an Oscar Mayer commercial. Sizzler, yeah. The Sizzler commercial actually went so well. There was a little boy that was there who was supposed to be doing it. And they had me do it. And then I just took over for him. And so they actually called me Jody in the commercial because they didn't even have a name written for me.

It was Brad, I think, was the original. I wound up doing this all-you-can-eat fried shrimp commercial. Oh, my God. Let me tell you. If I never ate fried shrimp again for, like, fucking years after that. It ruined you at four. But it ruined me at four against fried shrimp and Sizzler, really. Yeah, for real.

But although, I mean, for real, like, Sizzler really ruined me on Sizzler. Yeah. But at four, I did a commercial for their all-you-can-eat shrimp. And BBDNO, which was a huge ad company at the time that worked for them, gave me a dog because it was such a successful commercial. You got a dog? And I added so much to it. They wanted to know

what in the world I could possibly want that would make me happy. They asked my mom and she was like, she really wants a dog. What kind of dog did you get? It's a little Lhasa Apso.

I had a Lhasa. I named her Lacey after Lee Lacey, who was the director of the commercial. Yeah, so that was my- Did you have the hair all the way down? No, we kept her short.

Yeah, I feel that that dog would spend, she spent time outside more than I'd like. And I feel bad about that. Like my dad was not the dog person that my mom and I have forced him to be now. So, but anyway, yeah, at four years old, old i did that i started working and then i got uh a guest appearance on a show called valerie i don't know if you remember that show with valerie harper yeah and uh i was playing the next door neighbor i was playing her niece so i was playing

pamela pool i was mrs pool's niece. And she comes over and hurts her back. And then suddenly the three boys have to take care of me. Jason Bateman, Jeremy Licht, and oh my gosh, I feel terrible. I'm forgetting the third one's name. Danny, no. Danny something. Anyway. And how old are you at this time?

Not, like almost five. Oh, wow. You're still four. Still four, almost five. And I did this episode of the show and the producers, it was the same producers that were creating Full House at the time. It was Miller Boyette who have done Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and Valerie and all of that. Yeah. done Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and Valerie and all of that.

Yeah. And they loved what I did with Pamela Poole. And they cast me as Stephanie. I never auditioned for the part. No way. It was, they knew from seeing me do that, that it was exactly what they wanted. And I was one of the first people cast. And that was it.

And from that moment on, you know, my life became very became very very different so tell me about it how are you i mean you're five and you land full house at five yeah i mean and you know full house was not successful the first at the season we did not know right oh yeah i didn't know that critics hated our show critics have always hated our show. It's not. It's the fans. We realized like, look, we're not doing this for critics. We're doing this for our fans. And once we got families watching, like after those first 13 episodes, it started really growing. And then it became like a really, really successful show. Here's a wild question. Over eight years.

Okay. So you a wild question. Over eight years. Okay. So you starting at five. Looking back now as an adult, when do you realize this thing's turning into something much bigger? I don't know that I ever did. It never. People weren't stopping you on the street and stuff? Well, they were. That was the thing.

People were stopping me on the street. And you're a little kid, too. I'd go to like a mall appearance. I remember a mall appearance in Des Moines, Iowa that I had to dress up as a boy and escape from because too many people showed up at the mall and the fire marshal had to shut it down. It was like 10,000 people at this mall. No. And they had to sneak me out in a police car. That's an arena.

Yeah. And like it was ridiculous. And I think about these things and I'm like, that was my life. Like at, you know, 10 or 11. And I remember it was on the news, the Des Moines news. And I was so sad because people were angry that I wasn't there. That angry that I left. And I remember I, as a kid, I was like, but I had to.

Like, they told me I had. And I was so upset that I couldn't have my side of this. Like, they couldn't hear my side. You know, I knew it was a big thing, but I never. I also lived a very grounded life at home. I didn't grow up in L.A. proper. I grew up right outside of LA in Orange County. My dad still worked at a gypsum plant for a while

and then he retired and then he was a handyman. My mom was with me on set all the time. She was like, you know, with me every day, drove me to set. If I had to travel, she was there. She was, you know, I guess my manager. she was there. She was, I guess, my manager. She was the one that was with me all the time. And so my mom and I had a really close relationship growing up.

But I wanted to, I loved doing what I did. And my parents always said, like, if you love this, we'll support you. If you stop loving this and you don't want to do this, tell us. My parents were never like pushy, go perform for us. I think my mom, I mean, I was in pageants when I was little and stuff. My mom definitely loved the performance, the dress-up aspect, all that. But she was never like the pushy stage mom. She was like, let me just blend into the background.

I just want to make sure my kid's okay. And that kept me really normal. You know, I went to public school. I had normal. You did the whole time. Okay. Yeah, I had normal friends. You know, a lot of the friends at my birthday parties were just kids from school.

But how would you do that? What was your work week like? My work week. You're such a child that they've got to protect you and not work you. What are you allowed to work a five-year-old? Well, the first season, I seem to remember, we did schooling on set and stuff. And then we'd work three weeks and have a week off. So then I'd go to regular school and stuff but but later on in the seasons and i can't remember

exactly when i want to say like fourth grade maybe third fourth grade um maybe even earlier they started letting me go to school in the morning. So we would work a four-day week. Mondays I would be in school as a regular day. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I would go to school till lunch. My mom would pick me up, and at that time traffic was doable that you could drive from Orange County to Culver City in 45 minutes and make it at noon. You ain't doing that shit anymore um and you're not fucking

happening right so like god bless those times uh and i was able to go to school in the morning and then i would go rehearse in the afternoon do rehearsal and run through and then you know homework in the car or whatever and and then thursday and friday are tape days i did schooling on set or i could bank hours on rehearsal days so that those would count towards the, you know, if I had a big episode to film or something on Thursday or Friday. So it was a balance of both. And I am so grateful for that because I always had a foot in normal life. My parents were normal people. My parents, we didn't, they didn't give a shit about going to hollywood parties and you know it was like just a regular existence yeah and it was a break from

the crazy of you know going going going all the time and are you exclusive to full house during that time are you allowed to do anything else no during that time full house took up most of my most of my time because um you know we shot like nine months out of the year we at that time network shows were doing 24 to 26 episodes six or seven right it wasn't this netflix like you know limited series eight um but you know it was 24 to 26 episodes a season so you were working three weeks you were off a week you were off for a little while at the holidays. And then sort of late spring, early summer, you had off. And then you went back to work. So that was the schedule.

And that was what I did for eight years. Eight years. So from five to about 13? 13, yeah. And as you're getting older, what are you seeing differently in the industry as you get older like we hear about all these kids who are child actors who get taken advantage of right but you've got your mom there you know i was really really fortunate in that everyone on our set our entire cast bob, Bob, Dave, John, Laurie,

our directors, our producers, everyone was kind, you know, at least to the kids. I mean, I'm sure there was bullshit that happens at work, you know, whatever. But it was a real family. So the adults on set looked out for us. they noticed like we were kind of they were like hey can we take a five can we you know oh good so if they saw you tired they were aware of us we spent time together outside of just work we were a family unit and still are which i'm so grateful for but you know it was not um yeah, there were things that I missed.

And I'm sort of going through this moment right now in my life where I'm like, okay, well, it wasn't all good and it wasn't all bad. Like there were some really wonderful things about it and I had a great experience compared to some other people. But there were definitely things that it took away from my childhood and the anonymity that i lost at such a young age and things like that okay so let's you know processing that too but i'm just i i grew up in an environment that we were laughing all the time comedy was a huge piece of my life and how i lived day to day was around stand-up comedians and listening to them and just having fun with them. And so I'm, I am so glad that I had that because I know

I had a very different experience than a lot of kids in this business and it really shaped me for sure. So what, what do you start seeing? Like what age are you exposed to drugs alcohol i mean i have people sit across from me talk to me about six seven eight and they're not in entertainment oh that so this shit comes fast out here yeah but you know what i entered all of that completely away from the world of entertainment is that right oh yeah i was not around it um you know maybe i would have like a glass of champagne i think we'd go to the palm restaurant and you know at like 13 when i would get to go out with all the adults after a show we'd go to the palm and i'd finally that eighth season would get included and like i'd get a glass of champagne but you know

they'd pour it for a 13 year old um yeah uh but as far as that kind of stuff we didn't it that wasn't the environment of our set that wasn't the i mean you know it just wasn't around us they were conscientious of of the kids i started getting into that in high school in high school with you With, you know, other stupid kids. But after the show. So 13 it ends. 13 it ends. And then what do you do? 13 it ends.

Eighth grade I end. I start high school. I start high school. I turn 13 because I was 13 when I started high school. I was a year ahead of everybody. I'd skipped a grade in elementary. So I was younger than people. I was now a full-time student i was in a theater program a

musical theater program the orange county high school for the arts um but i now was also like just a normal kid and now all of a sudden that routine that kept me really busy is gone and um it was a huge adjustment like there was something that was nice about it where it was a huge adjustment. Like there was something that was nice about it where it was like there was nothing extra expected of me. I just didn't have to go anywhere all the time. I could just be at school. But at the same time, I started realizing,

okay, I don't know how I fit into this. I don't know. I just want to be normal like everyone else. Are you playing sports? Are you in theater? I wasn't know how I fit into this. I don't know. I just want to be normal like everyone else. Are you playing sports? Are you in theater? I wasn't playing sports. I was in theater. My regular school hours went until like 1.30 p.m.

And then from 1.30 to about 5 p.m. every day, we did our theater program. So again, I still had long days. I'm still involved in theater and performance. But I was a kid too. I was in high school and I was doing stupid shit that high school kids do. Except for the fact that addiction runs in my biological history. And so for me, when I pick up a drink, it does something very different than it does for everyone else. And- How quickly did you realize that? pick up a drink it does something very different than it does for everyone else and how quickly

did you realize that i realized that pretty early on i remember i seem to remember at like 15 writing some overly dramatic poem which i know now oh god if i want to find those fucking books so bad because i know there's like ridiculous poems of you know that need to be on mortified have you ever listened to that podcast no but that's a great idea mortified is just people getting up and read it's brilliant oh it's so brilliant because it's poignant and it's hilarious and you know at that time when they wrote that they were right and it was in it there's ones about people like i'm in love with the waiter at olive garden and i know he loves me too and you know, and like that stupid shit when you're 12, you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I talk for real. Like the dude in the fro-yo place loves me. Right. You're like 11 with a stupid crush. But like I know somewhere in those books I wrote down like that I was an alcoholic. You did? Yeah. At 15?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. I knew, I knew like for me it was, there was no off switch. So it runs biologically. Did your parents, did they have issues with alcohol? Yes, both of, yeah. As far as I know, my mom did, and my dad had issues with alcohol. And then it just runs throughout that biological family, which I know of because I know through my adopted dad,

I can ask, you know, relatives. So in that regard, I was fortunate. But I think, and I've talked about this before, there was like a part of me that because that was, gosh, I'm just getting very raw today. Because that was what I knew about them. That was the story I had been told. That was my way to connect with them. And that was the story that I told myself. I see. I think that that was what I was.

And I think it wasn't – I mean, we'll get to that point after i had my daughter but um the forgiveness took me a long time to find the forgiveness in myself uh and in my my biological mom i think a lot of adoptees feel like that that even if they know they wound up in a much better situation like somehow there's that level of rejection yeah i wasn't good enough right or what right right right um and so i had to i think that was a big piece of what i was working through honestly and i always say that i would have had struggles with alcohol and drugs regardless of being in television i know for myself the way that i react to it had nothing to do with the fact that i was on tv that was all an internal thing that would have happened regardless but because i was on tv everyone knew about it i see so you know what i mean it was like it and and and it added a layer of obvious

weirdness to my life that I'm sure I was seeking to figure out with drugs and alcohol um so you know it it was around 13 I started drinking and then you know in high school I was like I would drink in class I would be in class oh yeah yeah yeah do that i would just have a big coffee mug um that was like kalua and coffee and i would just sit in class and and drink it but i was getting good grades and teachers liked me and so i was able to um you know i could i could play it off i could act um i could pretend and nobody knew and i could keep up this facade. And that was something that I- What made you think, that's ballsy to bring it into class.

There was something, I have always, well, to be honest, I've always been one that's like, what are the rules? Okay, fuck those rules. Right, yeah. So that's part of it is like, oh, wait, this is a police station. I'm going to get high in a police station. Um, which I may or may not have done anyway. Um, but you know, like, that's just part of who I am is like the, like, you know what,

let's fuck it. Like, let's try this. And so that was where i was and i think i was also i just wanted so desperately to not be famous at school i just wanted to walk by and not hear whispers of conversation about me you know one of the things that you learn in 12-step programs and all this stuff is you know and you're like people are not thinking about you but But in my case, a lot of times people were. Yeah, I could see that for sure. I would go to a new school and 40 kids would follow me around

and half of them were being nice and half of them weren't. This is what I wanted to ask you. I imagine that makes it really hard to figure out who is authentic and who isn't. It's probably very difficult to make real friends in high school after coming off of a show like that you know it is but i will say um i don't know if i'm maybe stupidly optimistic or um maybe just a little dumb but i always believe the best in people so i come i i come to most people with a pretty open heart um and i've gotten burned a lot and i've i've trusted a lot of the wrong people but i try to not let that

stop me from being who i am um and yeah i mean people are shitty people are shitty in high school i was shitty in high school i did really you know i did really shitty things to people and hurt people's feelings because i was you know 15 and an asshole i have a 14 year old now by the way and that nothing has changed they're still i love my daughter to death but like you know you're just like there is a world around you child and i go oh yeah my mom said that to me too. But, you know, I just, I've desperately wanted to be like everyone else. And so it was like, let me be badder than you. Let me be bolder than you. But let me also be smarter than you and get away with shit because I got to keep up that facade too in order to get what I want. You know what I i mean like it was a it was a lot and i

like i've only recently i think in my like late 30s and now 40 have started like pulling the threads apart isn't it wild it's fucking crazy i mean and i'm like you know i'm really working on yourself it never stopped it's true and i'm in a real. I'm excited to do this show because I'm in this real period of growth and creativity and trying new things and being open and raw and honest and just kind of exactly who I am and radical self-acceptance. So it's exciting to get to come on a show like this and talk about who you really are. Thank you. And figure it out along the way. Yeah. Because, like, fuck, if you're really doing it, it's, like you said, you're always just like, oh, no.

Also, you're not right every time either. No. You're like, oh, fuck, I was wrong about that. Or you, like, you do something and you're like, oh, that, oh, God. Did all that work for nothing. Right. That was terrible. Right.

That backfired. Yeah. And it's, and, like, it's such a such a process and being patient with ourselves in that process. Because I am an impatient person and my biggest challenge in therapy is that I will show up week to week and be like, you know, I'm sorry that we're still on this thing about my childhood. And she's like, it's been three weeks. You're not gonna and i'm like i know but i should be over it by now and she's like that's not how this works you know

so i yeah i expect instant results and uh that's not it's not how self-discovery works guys sure isn't it takes a long time to fuck you up and it takes a long time to get yourself yeah just as long as it takes to get yourself wrapped up in it. Liquid IV fuels your well-being with easy ways to stay hydrated. Every day I've been hitting the gym now, I drop my liquid IV right in that bottle, shake it up, take it with me, stay hydrated all day. One stick of liquid IV in 16 ounces of water hydrates you two times faster and more efficiently than water alone. ounces of water hydrates you two times faster and more efficiently than water alone. It contains five essential vitamins, B3, B5, B6, B12, and vitamin C, and with three times the electrolytes of traditional sports drinks. It's made with premium ingredients, non-GMO, and free from

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five devices at the same time under one ExpressVPN subscription. Look, I want to say this. I travel the continent. I travel the country. I'm constantly using it to get sports in different cities. In Canada, we used it for payments and things. So stop letting people invade your privacy. Right now, get three extra months of ExpressVPN for free when you go to expressvpn.com slash honeydew. That's expressvpn.com slash honeydew. Expressvpn.com slash honeydew to learn more. Now, let's get back to the do. All right. So when you're drinking in high school, are you drinking with friends or is this like a thing you're just doing?

Both. Okay. Both. I would drink with friends, but I was always the one that was like, oh, boy. You know what I mean? But I drink everybody under the table. I had no off switch. And I was like, let's the stupid ideas abound can i

ask you i sit across from people who tell me they're alcoholics and and because i i can have a beer i can have half a beer and leave it and they're like i can't no it's the point and they say like if i have one i'm gonna have 20 and they're they'll say that's not an exaggeration so is it like that for you don You don't have an off switch? You know what I realized with alcohol is that for me, it just triggers something to where there's like there's no off switch. And when I look at it, you know, one of the things that it talks about in the literature of 12-step books is it says, you know, our goal is to drink like a gentleman. It's an outdated book. It's from the 30s.

But, you know, our goal is to drink like a gentleman. And I had to get real honest with myself and in my program. And when I really came to the conclusion that like, oh, I don't want to drink like a gentleman. I want to get to obliterated as quickly as possible or right to the edge of it to where I'm at least still upright. You know what I mean?

Like that, I want to get there and stay there when I drink. And so once I realized that, it was a much clearer thing where I was like, oh, yeah, it's not appealing to me. A glass of wine isn't appealing to me because that's's not a glass to me that's three bottles in because that's where we're gonna go so so when do drugs enter then if alcohol's 13 when do drugs come in I mean probably like 14 15 smoking pot on the way to school you know um it wasn't until i like graduated my my grad night of high school was the first time i ever tried uh ecstasy that was the first night that i did anything like

harder than smoking pot and i i smoked pot and i never really liked it when i was in high school i don't know why it would make me really dizzy and like puke it was just puke really yeah it was never like I didn't love it in high school um and so anyway so that was the first time I did that and then I was like that was awesome um and you know I was going through a lot of drinking at that time I my parents were really worried about what's a lot what was a day I mean well my parents didn't know but it was like it wasn't even like a daily thing it was just like if i had an opportunity to go out of the house or go out with friends i was doing something fucking stupid like the cops brought me home one night i lost my brand new car one night lost it well i gave it to a friend of mine uh who actually had a suspended license who wound up

driving it to san diego and returning it two days later. But I didn't know that because when I handed in the keys, I was in such a blackout that I didn't remember who I handed my keys to. And it was a brand new BMW. So yeah,

this is the shit that I do. Like lay down in the middle of the street, traffic, it lands like that stupid fucking movie like that's the kind of shit i do uh-huh like oh let me stand on the you know ledge of a seven-story balcony and see if i can bet like that's the stupid shit i've done yeah yeah yeah that in my 20s that's the stupid shit that i do because i so it's more than just getting drunk then. Oh. It's also the risk of bodily death?

Yeah. Yeah, I think it was, you know, for me drinking and using – and it started then at like 17, 18. I really started getting heavy into my drinking and using. I would occasionally get cocaine and ecstasy but again mostly just alcohol and what was your drink of choice whatever you had it didn't matter it wasn't just whiskey or i mean whiskey you i loved that but like i you know you didn't care if it was beer or vodka oh i'd have bacardi 151 contest like we you know whatever yeah that i don't when you win that there's no

winning that there's not it's not a win it's not it's not a win three shots of that in a row is not a win for anyone particularly your intestines anyway um but you know by 17 18 uh I had a 0.9 GPA in school I was. I was- Whoa, you did, huh? And I was on an academic scholarship. I went to Chapman University. I went to a great school. I was smart, but I just didn't go to class.

I was just drinking all the time. And my parents, when I graduated high school, my parents were terrified of me going because I was getting into so much trouble. And the deal that we struck was, okay, well, I live in the dorms because I was like, I have to have the dorm experience. And the deal was that I'd stay in the dorms

through the week while I was at class. And then on weekends, I would have to come home and be at home. I could go out with friends, but I had to stay at home at my parents' house because it was only like 20 minutes away. This was their attempt to sort of like wrangle you in. Right. So I was like, word.

Monday through Thursday, party time, Friday, Saturday, we're going to rest up. And that's exactly what I did. And I did not go to any classes. I broke my ankle the third day of school running down a flight of stairs, which then turned into this crazy fucking rumor that I was on acid and thought I could fly and, you know, Jodi Sweet and Brutal Rain. No. I was running down the stairs and I overestimated because I had had a few beers and I snapped my ankle. But I didn't want to. That was at night.

I didn't want to get it looked at. So I stuffed it in a tennis shoe and I walked around on it. I didn't want to admit that I'd broken it. But I wouldn't want to get it looked at, so I stuffed it in a tennis shoe and I walked around on it. I didn't want to admit that I'd broken it. But I wouldn't go to class, but I would certainly go to drink. So that was my priority. And by the time I had entered into, I think it was the second semester of my freshman year of college, I was dating the man who would become my first husband um and everyone was really worried about me my roommate i'll never forget my roommate once saying to me she came in the room and i was drunk again people were there and whatever and she was just heartbroken

because she picked me up so many times or come to find me so many times or worried when I disappeared so many times. And she just said, if you take one more drink, like I'm done with you. And I just looked her right in the eye and I was like, cheers, motherfucker, and drank it. And that's the kind of person I am when I drink. And, you know, that was where I was at in college. And I've talked briefly about this before, but I started cutting. I was a self-harmer. What brought that on?

I have learned in so many years of therapy, but I have learned that, you know, it's an outward physical expression of mental pain when you have this overwhelming feeling that you don't – it's like your brain goes, I don't know what to do with this. Like if this happens, at least I can be like, oh, that hurts. Okay. So you want to feel something. You want – right. It's like you want to – oh, I can do this. Yeah, yeah. You want, right. It's like, you want to, oh, that I can do this. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I never, never anything like super deep. I didn't, but I, you know, was almost getting kicked out of the dorms for being a danger to myself. My parents were really worried. I would come home and just sleep for like, you know was not doing well. And at that point I was 18 years old and, um, I was out one night and, um, like I said, the guy that I eventually married the first time, uh, he picked me up and we were driving down PCH somewhere and we pulled over and, um, and he called my mom and he handed me the phone and he was like you need to talk to your mom and i was just like oh fuck okay and uh and that was it that was the moment that i i the first

moment the first moment that i was like i need help and something's wrong and uh i went home for a couple weeks well no it wasn't a couple weeks it was like a week um and something's wrong. And I went home for a couple weeks. Well, no, it wasn't a couple weeks. It was like a week. And just kind of tried to detox and figure things out. And I decided I was going to move out of the dorms, that it was not the right situation for me. And I went back to my first class that night, and I was taking a class called Western Mysticism and Spirituality, which was this really interesting class taught by this really awesome priest dude. And I came back to class that night, and that night we just happened to be studying the spiritual principles of the 12 steps, and we had two people from Alcoholics Anonymous come show up and tell their story and I sat there and it was the first time that I heard the way that I felt in someone else interesting and she was an older woman and it was this and her husband and they

were like you know in their late 50s early 60s they looked nothing like me i lived completely different life but i heard how i felt and uh they left that room and i chased them down the hallway and i just turned to her and i said i need help and she told me to meet her at a meeting the next day and that was the very first time i ever went to a 12-step meeting i was 18 years old and that was the first time i tried to get sober okay and uh you know it getting sober for me was a process it was up it was down i um i graduated school i got married like i said i was uh how were you when you first 20 years old when i got married first i was very young um i thought i and my my first husband was a great guy um but i was i wasn't done yet i i i was holding on for everyone else but i i i had done some of the work but not deep enough i i had some more digging to do to get down a little

further and um and so you know my 20s uh i i relapsed while i was married i was married to a police officer i was doing a lot of drugs and a lot of stupid shit what drugs are you doing i was doing speed i was doing ecstasy i was doing cocaine i was doing a lot of stuff and hiding it from him yeah a police officer yeah it was how would you hide it he worked at night ah he worked at night so i could go out at night and then he'd come home and sleep during the day and then i could go do you know i during the day i would be home doing stuff whatever you know again um this was one of those things that i've had to look at where i go oh i was doing that pretending thing again

where i was getting the you know being the perfect wife and cooking meals and doing all this stuff and redecorating a house and, you know, getting a job and blah, blah, blah. But I was also over here doing this. You really were. You were able to do that for a while? Couple years. And eventually that ended poorly. And I just got honest honest and I went to treatment for the first time and you know that was uh I was so terrified I was so terrified uh I was like 22 almost 23 and I was like 22, almost 23, and I was like, I just fucked everything up, like everything. But I had experience. I remember on the way home from the hospital, the night that everything blew up by using and drinking,

the night that everything blew up with my using and drinking, I remember just saying the serenity prayer over and over again, which is, you know, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot, change the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And the entire car ride home, which was a silent car ride with my police officer husband and, with my police officer husband and, you know, all of the news. I just said that over and over again in my head because I knew that whatever, wherever I was going after this, it was, the decisions had been made. The freight train had come crashing down to a halt and now we pick up the pieces and it'll be okay. You can do this you know and um and again I went through treatment and I was gonna work there and I was a star student and

doing great and then I relapsed you know but I hit it and then I would you know and again I found I have found this element of let me be star student and then let me but let me also sabotage myself um and you know i spent my 20s i finally was like fuck this like i left treatment for a while i was in sober living i was like i can get an apartment by myself this is gonna be a great idea and i relapsed immediately probably over a dude because that was also what we were doing in treatment because like you're bored so you're like you're fucked up you'll do um and yeah i mean look i've um and so you know i just i i like i was real messy, went back to treatment, was really angry. It's so funny.

For years, my memory would not bring up the name of the place that I went when I went to treatment the second time. It was like I blocked that entire time of 30 days out of my mind. And I was like, oh, I had like go back and really reprocess that and think about it because i i was just really angry um and then you know i and then i i got divorced obviously and then i was out partying and i was going crazy and life was whatever and then i met just what in your mid-20s early my mid-20s yeah 24 25 i for a long time i've talked about this before didn't expect to see 30 you really i really did the way i was going and i don't think anybody around me did either um you know my parents my god my poor parents um who left me through all of it but who

you know eventually would hold boundaries and be like yeah please don't come to thanksgiving um you know, eventually would hold boundaries and be like, yeah, please don't come to Thanksgiving. You know, I was really lucky that I had them there, but I just blew up every area of my life. And then, you know, and then I, of course, I met someone else. I met someone, and everything's going to be great now. And I knew them for six weeks. And then we were with friends, and there was like a – someone was like, well, we're going to get married too. I was like, oh, we'll totally do it too. We'll get married. And that was exactly how I made the decision.

And then we got married, and my parents found out through my agent, and it was awful. Within six weeks? Yes. Where did you get married? Like Vegas? like vegas yeah we got married in vegas um he is the dad to my older daughter and he and i get along very well now um we have been through our hell um and yeah and that was you know we got married and then i and then i got pregnant and all of a sudden responsibility. Yeah, shit's real now. And I was like, oh shit, what do I do?

You know, I had to figure out what I wanted to do. And I thought maybe this is my opportunity to do it right, to heal something. And so, you know, i went through with it i was really excited and of course now my daughter is 14 and she's fucking gorgeous and amazing and like i love hanging out with her um but it was really overwhelming to go from being a complete fucking mess to having a kid and being married and living you know and we moved out to a house out um in corona which is like you know an hour and a half outside of la um all the friends i had were all like party friends so i didn't really have anybody i wasn't working he wasn't working like we were

just it was i was completely overwhelmed you know and I started drinking again. And then I knew I had to get sober really quickly after that because I, all of a sudden, it came full circle to me, the resentment and anger and hurt that I had with my biological mom. And all these years that I had spent thinking that it was me or that I wasn't worthy or that like I don't know somehow hanging on to some bit of why did you do this why did you make me this way you know why why did you pass this stupid fucking gene down to me. And in that moment, I realized that I wanted to stop drinking and was having a problem and loved my daughter more than anything in the world. And nothing changed that. But I also had this problem. And suddenly there was this like level of forgiveness and understanding of someone who was just very very sick and that i didn't have to be that person and uh and it

changed me you know being a mom really really changed me um and you go cold turkey that first time and like right when you got pregnant did you just stop yeah yeah i mean there were a couple i think i had like a glass of wine here and there but like it was you know it went from like fucking let's rage this shit to like oh what yeah you know and then people were definitely surprised people were like you're doing what yeah they doubted you huh well i the people i was hanging out with were like oh so you're not gonna so i shouldn't call you to get high now no no you know and it was like what do i do on a tuesday night like i'm going out to clubs like what you know life got very different um and i'm so grateful for it it i it saved me i probably saw 30 because of

it um and in it and i had a whole different perspective now things didn't work out with her dad and i we split when uh she was about four and a half months old um that didn't work out it was ugly for a while. Now we're cool and we're friends and we like laugh about like, remember when I fucking hated you? Which I hope everyone can get to that point with their ex. It would be nice. Remember when you were that asshole and I did this and you did that? It was really shitty.

Or like, you know, something will happen. It'll be like, I didn't slash your tires. Where'd it go? Yeah, you got to defend yourself. Like, that wasn't me. Like, may everyone get to that point with their ex because he and I can travel together and show up for our daughter. And it's amazing. And I'm really proud of that.

That's great, yeah. You know, we may have our differences and whatever, but I know at the end of the day, like, from what that was and how we met and how fucked up I was at the time and everything, we've done pretty damn well and we got a great kid. Yeah. You know? And so, but, you know, after that, obviously, I was like, okay, I was divorced. That's not happening.

And that was like two years later and, you know, I met somebody else. And of course, this is the thing that's going to fix it. And this is the. Can I ask you real quick? That was, I know you did that so quick, but did you get it annulled or did you actually? No, no. We went through a divorce. It was ugly. It was custody. It was no fun. It was articles in the paper. It was, you know, all of the bullshit. It was expensive. You know, it was all of the bullshit um it was expensive um you know it was all of those things uh it was as ugly as divorce can be uh plus you know public and tmz bullshit um and because it was so close to you know um dealing with my addiction and my treatment and because in some of the you know divorce proceedings it was talking about me trying to get sober, like it was this salacious thing. So it was, you know, it was no fun.

And then anyway, I met someone else. I was sober, things were going well. And we had been together for a while. And, you know, again, I got pregnant. And we were like, you know, maybe we don't have to get married. I don't know, maybe we do. I was like, I'm okay with it. We don't know, maybe we don't have to get married. I don't know, maybe we do. I was like, I'm okay with it. We don't have to yet. And I got my adorable daughter, Bea, who came out like a little fuzzy peach and she is this interesting, creative, wonderful girl.

And her dad and I then eventually got married and we were kind of like, well, I mean, insurance is coming. We should do this. I mean, we got a kid. Like, I guess, you know her dad and i then eventually got married and it was it was we were kind of like well i mean insurance is coming we should do this i mean we got a kid like i guess you know why not um again also not great reasons to get married um and you know and it's we we were together it was it worked at the time and i think i realized i never asked myself the right questions when I got into relationships. Like what? I was actually talking about this today. That whatever I wanted didn't matter. It was I knew I could put my needs aside to make someone else happy.

So I wasn't going to make any demands or ask any questions or have any needs or wants because I can push mine to the side and it's easier to make someone else happy and I did that a lot um and you know I did that and then unfortunately I wound up in situations where I was really unhappy and that wasn't the other person's fault you know they didn't know like I, you know, they have no idea. I read somewhere, too, that women break up with men in their heads six months before they actually leave. Six months? Is that the wrong way?

That shit is so true. Let me fucking tell you. I'm thinking back to mine now. Every time right now, every time someone has ever, a woman ever has broken up with you, they've been looking at you for six months going, this motherfucker. Fucking hate when he chews like that. It's common.

Yeah. And then they're like, but I can't leave yet because I got this guy. Oh, we're going on that trip in June. Fuck. All right. You know what? I'm going to stay. Okay.

I'm going to stay. I'm going to stay. But fuck this guy. And you're playing emotional, invisible hangman. And like, maybe if I'm being nice i'm giving you some shoes and i got no fucking clue and i'm like okay fine you get a shoelace you know what i mean and then finally i'm just like that's it i'm done fuck this let's burn it to the ground and you know the other person's like huh what just happened um and you know and and, and again, I wound up divorced and I was working in treatment and I had, now I had two kids and now I had no money and I managed to be getting divorced while I was working in treatment. Um, I had to be out of the condo that we shared, um, into someplace else. The treatment center that I worked at got taken over by one of the investors. I got

fired. I had no money. I had an old car that his dad had given me and I had no idea what I was going to do. And the owners of, I was living in one of the bottom apartments of one of the sober livings with my kids when all this happened, I lost my job and everything. And suddenly I – So then you lose your place too? I suddenly lost my place. I suddenly lost my job. I mean, I was making, you know, $2,200 a month.

I lost my job. I lost that. I was in the middle of an ugly divorce. I had two kids and I had no idea what I was going to do. And how old are you at this point? This was when I was 31. You've lived 10 fucking lifetimes before that. Yeah.

Jesus. I was like 31. I'm 40 now. So this is within the last 10 years of my life. Yeah. Jesus. I was like 31. I'm 40 now. So this is, you know, within the last 10 years of my life.

And, you know, and I wound up landing, a dear friend of mine wound up leaving his apartment and going somewhere else. He was like, I'm going to be gone for three months. Take my place. And I wound up landing in this little apartment building with my kids in this other person's apartment with stuff in storage and suddenly an apartment opened up across the way and i begged my parents to co-sign for it i had terrible credit because i owed like a hundred thousand dollars to the government for from back taxes that i was

still trying to pay off my My credit was like 300 something. Legit. It was not, it wasn't bad credit. It was like, wow, you fucked that up, right? Like I get a 0.9 GPA. I like to get like a 300 somewhere in my credit score. I like to go so, like that's like I said, I want to be badder than everyone else. You want bad credit?

Fuck you, watch this. You did it. right yeah hold my beer is that's my literally my fucking sentiments to everything like you want to do this hold now it's my coffee but anyway i uh where was i um oh shit my train of thought crashed um anyway i you know by this time i had two kids and I. The apartment opened across the way. The apartment opened across the way. And you begged your parents to co-sign.

And so I moved into that little apartment and it was one of the first times that I ever lived on my own. Not with someone else. Right. You know, when I was 19, I, when I was 17, I moved into the dorms and moved out of them after a semester back to my parents' house. From my parents' house, I bought a house at 19 and I moved into it with my then fiance. I'd never had an alone apartment experience. And are you full time with the kids? I have the kids 50-50.

I would have them half the time. You know, I was working again, found another job in treatment. And, you know, I've lived this, like, normal life. Like, this, you know, go to Target and, like, have to put things back life. And that was it. You know, that was, like, seven, no, that was 10 years ago now. But that was where I was at. no it was 10 years ago now um but that was where i was at and i in all of that had to go through this process of learning how to find joy and be happy even if i didn't have

the stuff on the outside to prove it you know and like i would work in treatment people like wait aren't you on tv like why are you working here and i was like i need a job like why wouldn't i you know there was i i for me that was like there was nothing i would work i worked for 10 or 12 dollars an hour when i started in treatment i was taking out trash and like helping detoxing clients puke you know what i mean like it was not glamorous um but i was willing to start there and you know what I mean like it was not glamorous um but I was willing to start there and you know eventually I worked up and I was working in treatment and I was like okay so this is like my life now and you're staying clean and sober staying clean and sober yeah and like life was really good um and you know I had had one relapse at one point when my younger daughter, I had been prescribed pills for a car accident.

And so I learned, I was like, okay, that's, somas are not, yeah. It was like a week and I went, then I like couldn't pick up a fork and I was like, oh yeah, this is bad. Again. Good self-check. Be able to pick up your cutlery at least feed yourself right if you can't do that you might have a problem um so anyway but but i had you know i had time at this point i was working in treatment everything and um suddenly i so i was working at this place and you know i get this call that they're wanting to pitch fuller house

john's they're wanting to bring it back they feel like there's an audience that you know candace is into it andrea's into it they want to base it on the three girls john wants to bring like all and so the pieces are kind of falling into place as far as like wanting to go out and pitch this and we all meet about it i'm like sure what the hell so i'm like living this normal life and like i'd have to miss work to go to a pitch and you know there was like a month there where we were going we went to abc family we went to abc we went to tbs we went to all these places uh and they were like well i don't know that we want to you know bring back something this was before reboots were like the thing everyone did and uh we had this horrible meeting that i actually couldn't make it to i had a huge meeting um for for regular work my my civilian life that day john couldn't make it andrea and candace like went to the wrong address for

nickelodeon it was a total shit show of a of a pitch but at that meeting was um Brian and I can't think of his name right now I want to say Grazer but I think I'm wrong uh who left and then went to Netflix and brought the idea of Fuller House there and said hey you guys they're pitching this thing and we went in to meet with Netflix like a couple like a month and a half later they were like oh it was the last meeting and we all went and They were like, oh, it was the last meeting. And we all went and we were like, it was kind of a Hail Mary, like, okay, sure. You know, I mean, it went well, whatever.

And then suddenly we got the call a little while later that like, hey, we're gonna pick up the show. And I was like, what? Oh, wow, okay. Oh, like I get to go back to that again. So let's talk about it. Five to 13, you're in entertainment. 13 until how old are you when you get the call that this is going to happen again?

Well, I still stayed in entertainment. I did. Okay, you were. I was still in entertainment. Like there was, I think I shot a holiday movie at one point when i was still in entertainment like there was i think i shot a um a holiday movie at one point when i was working in treatment like like you know over a month i shot it so like i still kind of had a toe in it okay i did episodes of i did like six episodes of party of five i did you know guest appearances on yes dear and a few other things so i was still

in it throughout my 20s i did like acting intensives and all that kind of stuff i was still in it but i had to it was at that point i'd had to move on to other things to pay the bills yeah uh you know i had child support i had fucking attorney fees attorney fees i had rent i had you know um i had kids and i also had no ego about trying something new and starting at the bottom and like okay I went back to I went back to school I got my you know a certificate to be a drug and alcohol counselor that was what I wanted to do I wanted to go back and become an MFT or a LCSW um so anyway I all of a sudden this got dropped in my lap and it was it came at a point in my life that i was ready for it and i knew that i could truly appreciate what i had and um yeah man walking back on that set

yeah man walking back on that set what was that like it was incredible at 13 years old you know i'll never forget at 13 years old taking that final bow it gutted me i sobbed much like i did on fuller house you know it but at that time when i was 13 and i was sobbing i was sobbing, I was sobbing because I was, I knew I was going to miss these people. And I knew that I, that the routine that I had had my entire life, that from when I could remember, basically, I all of a sudden didn't have that anymore. It was gone. And, you know, my parents had always been like, remember, this doesn't last forever. Like tried to, you know, prepare you for that. But even as an adult there's nothing that really prepares you for like this is a huge loss and so that really fucked me up i think and also no one even in your family or most of your friends couldn't even relate to what you're

doing or going nobody could have hindsight for that nobody there was no experience for that no there was no nothing to to relate to or understand or you know and it and and even for myself i was like well i feel silly like why am i so upset over this you know and as an adult now i look back and it's like dude you were like mourning a huge loss like that's a big deal um so anyway coming back to that set after leaving it at 13, and I mean, I could go on a visual tour of that set. Same set? Like, same set? Almost.

Pretty much. There were some, and it was funny. It was like walking into your childhood home that somebody else has lived in, and they've done some remodeling. But, like, it's kind of, the bones are basically the same, and, like, most of the stuff's the same. But, like, that wasn't there. And, there and like oh you guys added a bathroom over here and like oh that the alcove was bigger or like you know what i mean like the certain things where you were like oh i just i know that house so well that i know it was four steps from here to there and not two you know or whatever um but for the most part it was the same and i remember walking on set uh after we did our table reading with the cast and we all walked on there together

and that was amazing did you take time to appreciate like the full circle that it just appreciate i know it's full house but i know it's so i know but no you know what it i mean but but the gaps between 13 and there everything you had gone through to lead you right back to here now how about that it was the modern age of tech digital and everything who would have ever seen it coming back again and in a way that it did you know it was huge and that that was the thing like no i i mean god i've sobbed at the end of um fuller too and there's actually a beautiful picture that i cherish where i am hugging andrea and candace and it's a picture of my back and i'm hugging them in the full house living room and bob is standing in the background he's just looking like this and it's one of the I have it I posted it it's one of my favorite photos um because it says a lot

there's a lot of there's 30 some odd years of family history in that photo and um being able to come full circle and then I did dancing with the stars which you know look it sounds silly I used to go to ballroom dance competitions in my 20s and watch I love them I like I always wanted to do that any competition show I've done I've only done because it was something that I thought that I wanted to learn how to do before and so if I'm gonna get paid to do it and play for charity sure fuck it so I did Dancing with the Stars. And then I started working.

I had another show that I produced and was writing on and starring in called Hollywood Darlings, which is a really fun improv-based sort of Curb Your Enthusiasm type show with Christine Lakin and Beverly Mitchell about being former child stars in Hollywood and continuing to work. But I started moving more into like adult comedy outside of Full House and then finding my own voice and finding what that is. And that's kind of where I'm at in my journey right now is like stretching out a little bit, doing some more fun comedy stuff, writing a little bit here and there, leaning into the persona of myself um and liking who i am outside of just being that girl from full house yeah fuck yeah i don't want to ask you i feel like i've rambled on i give the

world's longest fucking answers i feel like you this here and now this is just me i'm i'm gonna just call it out in like my head because my head is like shut up woman you have bored them all so i hope i didn't bore you okay please this is your episode you told me to be quiet and wait till you hear this shit and i sat here and listened i mean but i have questions okay yeah yeah well let's get to the questions who tells you about your biological father's murder in prison is that your adoptive parents? That was my adopted parents, yeah. Because I, you know, I mean, the glaring question, where was I from? Where, what, who, you know, what happened?

And I was mature and I understood quite a bit. You know what I mean? I was not like a typical 11-year-old. Yeah, I was able to kind of understand things and process things. I mean, you know, again, as well as an 11-year-old can. But my parents were very honest with me, which I don't regret and I respect very much. Because I – on top of the bullshit that I was processing, the fact that they had lied to me was never something that was in there and i'm grateful for that some parents i think try and like blow it off or not tell them the

truth or whatever because they don't want to hurt them or are afraid that they can't handle it at a young age and i think there's a way to do it that allows you to be honest because if that would have been the case like that would have been yet one more you know thing um what about your biological mom did you ever connect with her i never did and i learned recently that she passed in 2013 um do you know how i don't know how uh you know and it's weird. How'd you find out? I found out through, I think it was maybe Ancestry or something. I did a little digging because I did like the 23andMe because I was like, what the fuck am I? I am potentially the whitest person on the planet.

No, actually, I'm not. They re-updated it. I've got 7% Italian. Wait, they re-updated it? They updated it and apparently I have 7% Italianian all of a sudden i don't know i don't do dna i send my shit in so that i can be recorded and potentially they send it back to you like hey we we actually well i'm like english irish sky man look at me i'm just a like a nordic fucking english welsh wet dream it's just blonde blue eyed you know but apparently i have seven percent italian that was it but for a while there it was like 99.9 percent

just just boring as white people uh but anyway i um i didn't i found out about her through through i think ancestry me or 23 and me but from what i heard um she you know she struggled her whole life and i knew you know she had other kids that went to yeah she had other kids um uh one of whom i recently connected with who lives on the east coast and i actually need to call her back um you have some siblings that you there's some out there out about uh no i knew that is that some of them were out there um but uh you know now through the wonders of dna testing you find them um so i i've emailed and talked to one girl that's my half sister um who i think looks like me um or i look like her because i think she's a little older uh but yeah i you know she lived a hard life my uh the story that i have and what i know and the small bits of paperwork and things

that i have um and the the story that my parents were told by the social worker was just that she you know she had been on her own really since she was 15, been on the streets, kind of did what she had to do to survive. And, you know, got caught up in like drugs and bad checks and trying to just keep things together, changed her name a lot, you know, was trying to survive. Do you know if she raised any of her children? I don't know if she did. I don't believe she did. children i don't know if she did i don't believe she did uh there was a woman who contacted me who was a foster parent um and i think she had another one or two of her kids i think one maybe um so i think there's like at least three or four so um i don't know but i you know and it's funny because I went from being angry at her to being very proud of her, of my biological mom, and saying, you know what?

You knew your limitations. Like you – you know what? You were doing what you had to do to survive and you were with somebody and you got pregnant and you, you know, decided to have it. But you knew you couldn't do it. And so you would give up your kid. And like in some ways that's the ultimate selflessness, right, is to go, I can't do this for you. Someone else has to. And once I got to that place in my life and i got there after

having my own kid i was gonna ask you if being a mom shift being a mom shifted everything like it really shifted everything because suddenly you know and it shifted my relationship with um my mom because now and i think that happens anyway once you get older. Like all of a sudden you're like, oh, shit. Like you were just a person trying to figure this out too. No wonder sometimes it got a little fucked up. Like you were just a human being trying to have your own experience. And you start seeing your parents and your family as like whole people. Yeah.

And you're like, I only saw, because I know my kids only see the mom side of me. And I remember my mom said that to me one time. She said, kids only see the mom side of me. And I remember my mom said that to me one time. She said, you only see the mom side of me. She was like, trust me, when I'm out with my girlfriends, that's the other side. And I was like, oh shit, that's true. I will always have a mother-daughter dynamic with you. You're always going to be able to look at me and I can, you know. I remember the first time I saw a teacher out in public and I was like.

Right, you're like, oh my God, you're a huge person. You live outside of the classroom? Right. Yeah. And as you get older, like, and I think also as you get older and your parents start telling their fucked up stories of like, oh, this one time I was at a Bob Dylan concert and we smoked weed in this van. And you're like, oh, my God, like you were human, too. this van and you know and you're like oh my god like you were human too and i've just come to this greater appreciation um of my mom and my parents but particularly my mom um and everything that she did for me you know and like she her entire life was my life and um i had a great relationship with her because of that um but like i my birth

mom gave me a life beyond my wildest expectations by being able to walk away you know and that takes that takes a lot that takes a lot so that's really well said. This has been a really great episode. I appreciate you coming on. Now I'm going to ask you what I told you I was going to ask you at the beginning. Advice you give to your 16-year-old self because it's a very interesting time for you. You're just a couple years off of full house. You're in high school. What advice do you think you would tell yourself at 16?

Ooh. You're worth more. Good for you. That's great. Yeah. You're worth more. Yeah, I think 16-year-old me needed to hear that. No, thank you again for being our guest on the 200th episode. I am so honored to have come and babbled at you for an extensive period of time.

I fucking loved it. Are you serious? I loved it. And, you know, the best part, look, I laugh at myself. Like, on paper, I am a fucking disaster. I am a thrice-divorced, four-time married. Oh, you did get married again. I thought I saw that.

Is it pretty recently, too? In July, July 30th. All right, congrats. And he is my person. I fucking love him. I finally, like, finally figured out what i wanted in a relationship that i get to actually show up to it too and like have a good person and that i'm worth it i finally figured that out um but yeah i you know i just recently got married and uh you know on paper i like it's

not cute like if you write things down i'm like look, look. The resume is not the full picture. Put mustache to the side. Bring me in for an interview. I swear to God. Let me charm you a little bit. I am a charming motherfucker. Let me tell you. But if you just read it on paper, you're like, okay, wow. Treatment twice.

Sober at eight. Started drinking at 13. Okay, you got married on a dare. Three times. Jesus. Two babies. Okay. One kid with another person great guy like

you go through the thing and you're like wow uh but but also you live through all i live through all of that and i have some fucking hilarious stories like i i've got stories for days i'm gonna be the old crazy lady at the dinner table telling the most inappropriate stories because I'm 85 and fuck you, I can.

That's right. And you got a ton of them. Oh, so many. Well, next time you can come back and share stories. I would love to.

Yeah, we'll do that. I would love to. One more time, please plug and promote everything you'd like. You can follow me across all socials

at Jodi Sweetin. I am most active on instagram because i'm old um and tiktok infuses me uh no but i'm most active on there you can check out my podcast never thought i'd say this at never thought i'd say this on social media um and i will i post everything that i'm up to on there i've been doing a couple episodes of picturing which is actually really fun hosting that or um uh being one of the team capt on there. I've been doing a couple episodes of Pictionary, which is actually really fun hosting that, or being one of the team captains on that. I've been just trying to stay busy and doing some fun creative stuff.

So check it out at Jodi Sweetin and I keep everything updated on there. All right. Thank you again. I really appreciate it, Jodi. Hell yeah. I'm so glad to be here

and I can't believe that I revealed all of that to these wonderful people. You did a great job. They're going to love it. Thanks. As always, RyanSickler.com, Ryan Sickler on all social media. We'll talk to you all next week. I'm out.