{"id":28092,"date":"2025-05-21T12:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=28092"},"modified":"2025-05-21T12:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:57:16","slug":"80s-tv-icon-left-career-for-sick-mom-who-once-regretted-giving-birth-to-her-bullied-her-because-of-weight-where-is-she-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=28092","title":{"rendered":"’80s TV Icon Left Career for Sick Mom, Who Once Regretted Giving Birth to Her & Bullied Her Because of Weight \u2014 Where Is She Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This Hollywood star rose to fame in a blockbuster hit of the ’80s but walked away at the peak of her career to care for her dying mother. From battling addiction to finding faith and forgiveness, take a look at her journey beyond the spotlight.<\/p>\n

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She rose to fame as a child star and landed a lead role in one of the biggest films of the 1980s. But behind the scenes, she was enduring abuse at the hands of her mother \u2014 the same mother she would later give up her thriving acting career to care for as she battled cancer.<\/p>\n

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The former child star filming “Fast Times” in 1986. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So, where is this star now? This is the story of how she disappeared from Hollywood \u2014 and what she’s been doing ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The actress photographed in 1986. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Child Star Who Shone Onscreen Suffered in Silence<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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By the time she was 12, this actress had already swapped childhood for a\u00a0life in Hollywood<\/a>\u00a0with her divorced mother. Casting directors saw something magnetic in her \u2014 sharp timing, natural charm, an emotional depth beyond her years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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TV\u00a0roles<\/a>\u00a0quickly followed, and she fell in love with the spotlight. “My fun and joy was when the camera was on and I got to be a person and act,” she\u00a0recalled<\/a>. “Because every single role I played I got to take a part of me and express it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ’80s star as Linda Barrett in “Fast Times” circa 1986. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This was because, at home, there was no applause. No safe space to land due to her alcoholic mother. “I thought everyone grew up hearing, ‘I regret the day you were ever born,'” the actress once\u00a0said<\/a>, adding:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I was either the greatest or I was worse than my father, worse than her mother. […] I didn’t know who I was because I was told so many different things.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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The ’80s TV icon photographed in 1986. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In addition to the constant criticism, her weight became another weapon in that toxic dynamic. The young star was forced to stand in front of her mother’s bed while\u00a0being told<\/a>\u00a0she was “too fat” \u2014 even when she wasn’t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The pressure to be perfect chipped away at her self-worth until it finally cracked. At 14, she tried to overdose on her mother’s prescription pills. “That was my intention. Completely. It was not a cry for help. It was an ‘I’m done. I don’t deserve to be here anyway. I’m too fat,'” she\u00a0revealed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The actress on the set of “Fast Times” in 1986. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By 16, she was battling bulimia and taking up to 60 laxatives a day. Yet the cameras kept rolling. In 1982, she\u00a0landed a role<\/a>\u00a0in the series “Herbie, the Love Bug,” opposite Dean Jones. It was on that set that she found a lifeline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jones and his wife, Lori, began taking the young actress and her mother to church, gently\u00a0introducing her to a faith<\/a>\u00a0that would later help pull her out of the darkest corners of her life. And then, at 18, came a career-defining role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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