Jodie Sweetin was America's sweetheart. Behind the scenes, she was living a double life.

We knew her as the loud and boisterous Stephanie Tanner on Full House, the beloved mid-80s show that became an American staple. 

But as soon as the wholesome family series came to an end, actress Jodie Sweetin found herself in a world of pain.

Recently opening up about her life on The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler podcast, we were reminded of Sweetin’s ongoing journey to beat her struggles with drug and alcohol addiction that began when she was just 13 years old.

Jodie Sweetin with the Full House cast. Image: Getty.

At 13, Sweetin began drinking, marking the beginning of a long battle with substance abuse. Full House had just been cancelled in 1995, and the young actress found herself beginning to spiral without the stability of the show.

"I found alcohol, and it allowed me to breathe in a way that I couldn’t before," she said in a speech at Slippery Rock University in 2016.

"I probably had two bottles of wine, and I was only 14," she wrote in her 2009 memoir unSweetined, recalling the night of her Full House co-star Candace Cameron's wedding.

Throughout this period, she tried to be a 'normal kid' by attending a performing arts school and then enrolling in Chapman University, but her partying was so full on that she nearly failed her first year. By this time, she was also using cocaine, having also used ecstasy while she was in high school.

However, after a night out landed her in hospital, Sweetin was compelled to admit her struggles to her family. She attended her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 2000, after two former addicts came to address the students at her college. While it took Sweetin a long time to get sober, this was the beginning of her resolve to heal.

Image: Getty.

While she was at college, Sweetin met and married her first husband, police officer Shaun Holguin. She was only 20 when they tied the knot. While this brought some stability into Sweetin’s life, it was only a few years later that she would try crystal methamphetamine for the first time.

"It took six months from the first time I tried it to doing it all the time, all day every day," she told People in 2006.

"He had no idea," she said of her police officer husband.

"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."

Sweetin has also famously admitted to being high at the 2004 premiere of New York Minute, which she attended to support her former Full House co-stars, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

"It was hard for people to believe I was doing that much drugs. I look at photos from that event, and I didn't even look strung out," she wrote in her memoir.

Eventually though, her habit was discovered, and Sweetin took herself to rehab to get better. The discovery harmed her marriage, and she and Holguin separated in 2006.

Jodie Sweetin with Candace Cameron Bure at the 2004 premiere of New York Minute. Image: Getty.

Things improved for Sweetin towards the end of the 2010s, when she met and married Cody Herpin, a driver and transportation coordinator who worked on film sets. In April 2008, they welcomed a daughter together, Zoie. However, they separated very shortly after her birth.

Amid the separation, Sweetin relapsed. At one point, she drank two glasses of wine and drove with her baby daughter in the car.

"That was the big rock bottom," she wrote in unSweetined. She went on to explain that she got sober for good on December 7, 2008, when she got a call that the court was having an emergency custody investigation due to her drinking, right after she had taken cold medicine with alcohol.

As Sweetin was finalising her divorce from Herpin in 2010, she was also dating DJ Morty Coyle, with whom she had her second daughter, Beatrix. 

A few months after having Beatrix in 2010, Coyle proposed on Sweetin’s 29th birthday in January 2011. They married the following year, but things quickly became rocky and they separated in 2013.

In her Slippery Rock University address, Sweetin confirmed her third marriage breakdown triggered another relapse for her. After a car accident, she was prescribed pain medication, which began the cycle of addiction once more.

"I threw myself wholeheartedly into my recovery," she said, explaining that she also decided to return to college and train as a drug and alcohol counsellor. 

At the same time, she was in talks to star in Fuller House, the reboot of the original series that gave Sweetin her fame. She and Candace Cameron Bure revived their roles as DJ and Stephanie Tanner, with the show running for five seasons.

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As for her life now, Sweetin ended her fourth engagement to Justin Hodak in 2017. Following this, he violated a restraining order she had out against him, and was eventually sentenced to prison for various crimes. 

Sweetin later announced her engagement to Mescal Wasilewski in January 2022, when he proposed right before her birthday.

"I love you Mescal, always. You’re my person. I can’t wait to see the life that lies ahead for us," she wrote on Instagram beside a picture of the pair.

The pair married on July 30 in a ceremony that involved both of Sweetin’s daughters.

Sweetin now continues to act; she also remains very open about her addiction struggles as a way to 'demystify' the disease, and help others feel less alone.

Feature Image: Getty.