The Tragic True Life Story Of The Olsen Twins
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are among the most recognizable and professionally successful twins on the planet. They were millionaires by the time they were 10 years old. They've graced the covers of countless magazines. They capitalized on their kid-then-teen idol status to become major influencers within the fashion industry and can regularly be found in the front row of any given catwalk. And even two decades removed from the apex of their celebrity, they still have legions of elder millennial fans who look up to them, relate to them, and will come to their defense, all because they feel like they grew up along with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Being rich, powerful, beautiful, stylish, and thought of as the face (or faces) of a generation doesn't sound so bad. But fame from birth onward and a life lived almost entirely in the public eye can come at a great cost. Though it may seem like they started out already on top of the world, their personal journeys have been marked by ups and downs, and perhaps more downs than ups. They've faced some trials that any kid or young adult might contend with, as well as some tribulations that only those in the most elite circles would ever encounter. Today, the Olsen twins, who are now 37 years old, live and work as anonymously as they can, rarely appearing on screen or granting interviews. But in the years prior, the constant presence of cameras captured all the tumult. This is the true and often troubling story behind their made-for-TV matching smiles.
They were working before they could walk or talk
Plenty of kids aspire to be actors and even more of them dream of being famous, but Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen weren't old enough to want anything other than a bottle or a nap when they became incredibly famous actors. The twins were just six months old at the time they were cast in the pilot for "Full House" and only nine months old when they began sharing the role of Michelle Tanner. Mary-Kate and Ashley's parents, Dave and Jarnie, took their daughters to an open casting where they caught the attention of series creator Jeff Franklin, who noticed that the Olsen babies were unusually comfortable around strangers. They got the part, and to stay on the right side of California's child labor laws, Mary-Kate and Ashley took turns working in front of the camera long before they were aware of the fact that they had a job.
Michelle Tanner quickly became the breakout star of "Full House," which (if the 2015 tell-all Lifetime film, "The Unauthorized Full House Story," is to be believed) caused tension among the rest of the cast. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the show aired, the press and public were often less considerate in their treatment of child stars. In a 1991 profile for The Washington Post, Jay Mathews wrote that he and his family were "infatuated" with the Olsen twins despite the fact that they had "little acting talent." Mary-Kate has since compared her childhood experiences to that of a performing monkey; she told Marie Claire, "I would never wish my upbringing on anyone."
Their parents divorced at the height of their fame
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen never knew life as anything but pint-sized celebrities. They grew up on the set of "Full House," which ran for eight seasons from 1987 to 1995. They weren't yet 9 years old when the series that had made them household names came to its close. It likely would've been hard for the Olsen twins to transition away from starring in a highly rated sitcom no matter what, but that year happened to coincide with the dissolution of their parents' marriage. News broke in February of 1996 that Dave and Jarnie Olsen, who had also been co-managing their twin daughters' business interests, had divorced. Some tabloids blamed the stress of running what had become the Olsens' multi-million-dollar empire.
The truth was a story more common than extreme stage parenting. The twins' father, Dave, had begun a romantic relationship with a woman named McKenzie who'd worked with (or for) him before he'd left the mortgage industry for Hollywood. Dave married McKenzie only a month after his split from Jarnie became public knowledge. According to EW, Ashley skipped the ceremony to be by her mother's side while Mary-Kate was present for her father's second wedding. The divorce didn't seem to drive a wedge between the sisters' relationship, but it did divide the family, perhaps more so than Dave let on. In the aftermath, he called the situation "smooth" and said, "the girls are fine," while Jarnie declined to comment.
They missed out on milestones because of their careers
In a 1996 conversation with EW, Mary-Kate Olsen reasoned that regardless of the media empire that sprang up around them, she and her sister got to have normal childhood experiences. "We go to school, play with our friends, see our pony, have sleepovers," she explained. The Olsen twins did attend school when possible. Though their parents could've had them tutored on set, they were enrolled at Campbell Hall Episcopal School in Studio City, California ... a private, religiously affiliated institution that encouraged curiosity and self-discovery over more rote methods of instruction.
But the entertainment business and the upward trajectory of their careers always had to take priority over what would've been the highlights of any other teen's high school experience. One example? Mary-Kate and Ashley missed their senior prom because they'd been booked as the hosts of that week's episode of "Saturday Night Live," which was recording the same night. Their "SNL" appearance was to promote their upcoming feature film, "New York Minute." The prom would've been purely recreational. The twins even referenced the coincidence in their opening monologue. "We'll never know what it's like to ride in a limo and wear fancy dresses and have someone do our hair," Ashley quipped. We can't feel too bad for the Olsens; hosting "SNL" is a huge honor and an experience that few people — and even few famous actors — ever get. Still, the fact that they spent their senior year making and then promoting a movie necessarily meant there was much less time for things like sleepovers and school dances.
They dropped out of college
After they graduated from Campbell Hall, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen planned to attend New York University. They had already been accepted into a flexible degree program that would allow them to design their own curriculum while they continued to run what was by then their own production company, Dualstar Entertainment Group. In preparation for this new educational and entrepreneurial joint venture, the twins had chosen a private residence they intended to share and secured nearby office space for Dualstar. Unfortunately, their best laid plans didn't pan out.
Mary-Kate and Ashley both dropped out of NYU before they'd even had a chance to move into their penthouse apartment, ostensibly to focus on their responsibilities at Dualstar. But a variety of factors were to blame. It's possible they may have never been very serious about their studies. The self-directed Gallatin School allowed the twins to explore their passions, but it didn't keep them on track to graduate. Both had left NYU by their sophomore year. There were also whispers that Mary-Kate's health was a factor. More problematic was the fact that paparazzi and the student body were so invested (financially and otherwise) in the twins' day-to-day lives. The Olsens claimed they didn't feel safe at NYU, as they couldn't tell which of their cohorts were selling photographs and stories – including accusations of excessive partying – to the press.
The tabloids wouldn't leave them alone
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have been the subject of tabloid speculation dating at least as far back as their parents' divorce. In their teen years, they became fashion and beauty proto-influencers. Though they'd been churning out content through their production company (specifically dozens of straight-to-video movies and specials), they'd become better known as media personalities. Their adoring public (and, worse, their detractors) wanted to know what they were up to, and the intrusion only got more intense as they approached their 18th birthdays.
As online media and communication became more ubiquitous in the early 2000s, Mary-Kate and Ashley were subjected to a virtual Wild West of cyber-treatment. Websites were created to countdown to the day they'd turn 18 for the explicit purpose of celebrating the moment they'd become legal adults. The Olsens, who were fixtures in paparazzi photos, were already being sexualized by a segment of the public; these inappropriate countdown clocks merely upped the ante.
It's hard enough to be a child whose life is on display. It's much harder to be a teenager or young adult. All of the Olsens' choices and behaviors were scrutinized by the public and sometimes spun into stories that simply weren't true. In one instance, Ashley sued The National Inquirer for $40 million over a misleading photograph and headline that implied she'd passed out from drug use. Though the outcome of the trial was never disclosed, the publication later ran an apology and a correction.
Speculation about their weight was cruel
Of all the things the press hounded Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen about (men, money, supposed infighting), speculation reached a fever pitch when it came to their weight. The Olsens, who are both just over 5 feet tall (they're actually fraternal twins; Ashley is 1 inch taller than Mary-Kate), are noticeably petite ... but their health should've remained a private matter.
It didn't. While some angles suggested rampant drug use (particularly cocaine) was the reason for the twins' thin frames, other write-ups wondered aloud if one or both of the Olsens weren't struggling with an eating disorder. The early '00s were a pop cultural moment in which the public was fascinated by the downfall of celebrities, and stories about stars entering rehab were particularly juicy. One might expect that rags like The National Enquirer, who'd made inferences about Mary-Kate based only on associations, might be behind the most reprehensible stuff, but respected programs like "The Oprah Winfrey Show" handled the situation just as poorly and were just as complicit in spreading the gossip.
In a 2004 interview with Oprah, Mary-Kate and Ashley tried to politely dance around the topic, but the host wouldn't let it go. She brought up rumors about possible eating disorders and even asked the girls what size they were on national television. Shortly after the episode aired, Mary-Kate entered a rehabilitation facility for treatment of anorexia nervosa, which itself became sensationalized front-page news at a time when the star in question needed help and support.
They were pitted against each other
That Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are twins in the same industry meant that it was all but unavoidable that they'd be compared to each other. Those comparisons grew more ill-intended as the girls matured, especially during the time Mary-Kate was battling personal issues in a public spotlight. She became tabloid fodder while Ashley was embraced by the press ... though even that embrace was somewhat insidious.
In 2007, Maxim Magazine ranked Ashley and only Ashley as the 37th hottest woman in the world on their annual Hot 100 list. She fell to 47th the following year, and again, her sister Mary-Kate was missing from the yearly round up of beautiful celebrities. Ashley also began to land solo magazine covers, like that of the July 2005 issue of Harper's Bazaar. And, as was picked up by and contrasted in the press, around the time Mary-Kate was in rehab, Ashley was interning for fashion designer Zac Posen. By all accounts, though the sisters chose to live separately for the first time during this phase of their lives, they remained close and supportive of each other, even as some corners of the media tried to tell a different story.
Their acting careers didn't last into adulthood
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen didn't have any say in their careers as child actors. That path was chosen for them by their parents and the production team behind "Full House." They did, however, exhibit more agency as their careers evolved. Once they outgrew the kind of just-for-kids projects that had been their trademark — think 1997's "You're Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley's Mall Party" — they tried their hand at more broad-based and family friendly fare with 2004's "New York Minute." Alas, the horribly reviewed movie would be the last time the twins would share the screen together as well as the last time they'd headline a film or TV series.
Ashley had a small role in the largely forgotten 2008 comedy "The Jerk Theory" and then called it quits on her acting career, more or less, to focus on her passion for fashion. Mary-Kate lasted a while longer. She appeared in 2006's "Factory Girl," 2008's "The Wackness," and 2011's "Beastly," and she had an eight-episode run on the Showtime series "Weeds." Their younger sibling, Elizabeth Olsen, has gone on to have the superior body of work, starring as Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and receiving acclaim for her performances in films like 2011's "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and the upcoming "His Three Daughters."
The Olsen twins briefly flirted with the idea of returning to the role that put them on the map when "Full House" was set to reboot as "Fuller House." But the pair ultimately chose to pass on the opportunity, citing their many years away from the camera and their thriving design business as justification.
Their love lives have been rocky
In Hollywood, relationships are infamously difficult to sustain. Both Olsen twins — who have always been famous — have found that to hold true. Ashley has dated notable men from the worlds of entertainment and sports. Her first beau was Columbia University quarterback Matt Kaplan, followed by club owner Scott Sartiano (whose raucous behavior landed Ashley in those tabloid scandals). She was on-again-off-again with actor Jared Leto and was momentarily tied to cyclist Lance Armstrong. She and actor Justin Bartha dated for three years as he was starring in "The Hangover," but the couple ended their relationships in 2011. Dax Shepherd claims to have gone out with her as well. Ashley met her current husband, Louis Eisner, earlier, but didn't recognize him as a love match until 2017. The couple quietly married in 2022 and welcomed their first child in 2023.
As in other areas of their lives, Mary-Kate's romantic experiences have been more tabloid-worthy and tragic. She was rumored to have been dating actor Heath Ledger after his breakup with actress and mother of his child, Michelle Williams. When Ledger died of an overdose in 2008, the woman who found the body contacted Mary-Kate first (before the authorities), who sent over her bodyguard. Mary-Kate has repeatedly declined to comment about Ledger's death. She'd later marry French banker and brother of the former French president, Olivier Sarkozy, who was nearly 20 years her senior. They divorced in 2020 when he invited his ex-wife to move in with them during the pandemic.
Their company was sued for wage theft
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen will always be known for their portrayal of Michelle Tanner, but these days, the success of their fashion empire has far outpaced that of their once-mighty production company. When it comes to their clothing brands, the Olsens have been commended for signing on a pledge to guarantee their factory workers maternity leave, but they got themselves into hot water over at Dualstar Entertainment. In 2015, 40 former and present interns sued the Olsens and their company for wage theft. They claimed, in a class action lawsuit, that though they'd been hired as interns, they were putting in upwards of 50 hours a week and doing the same tasks as paid employees.
The case was settled out of court in 2017, and Mary-Kate and Ashley were forced to cough up $140,000 in back pay to be divided amongst the 185 interns they tried to use as full-time employees.