Jodie Sweetin credited Full House costar John Stamos with supporting her sobriety over the years.
“John and I really, really connected in a lot of ways over [sobriety],” Sweetin, 44, shared during a Wednesday, July 15, appearance on the “Dory Jackson Interview” podcast.
The pair’s friendship started out when Stamos, 62, played Sweetin’s Full House character Stephanie Tanner’s uncle Jesse Katsopolis on the ABC sitcom from 1987 to 1995.
Sweetin has spoken candidly about battling addiction in her adolescence while Stamos wrote in his 2023 memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, that he got sober after entering rehab in 2015. (Stamos sought treatment following a misdemeanor DUI arrest in Beverly Hills at the time. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor of driving under the influence and was sentenced to three years probation.)
“We have been there to celebrate each other’s big successes and milestones, and I am so glad that I got to be an example of attraction rather than promotion, which is a big principle in recovery,” Sweetin said in her latest interview.
She added. “[The principle is] don’t beat people over the head. Just be the result of all of your work, and chances are, people that are looking will find you.”
Sweetin told Us Weekly in 2009 that she’d recently decided to get sober following an incident that threatened her child custody. (Sweetin shares daughter Zoie, 18, with her second ex-husband, Cody Herpin, and daughter Beatrix, 15, with third ex-husband, Morty Coyle.)
John Stamos and Jodie Sweetin on “Fuller House.” Saeed Adyani/Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
“I got sober for good on December 7, 2008. I was flying to L.A. and I ended up taking a bunch of Nyquil and drinking a s***load,” she recalled. “When I got home, I got a call that there was an emergency custody investigation because of my drinking. From that day forward, I threw myself into going to [Alcoholics Anonymous] and avoided people who do blow off their coffee tables. … Life is good. I’m happier than I can remember.”
She revealed in a 2016 Dancing With the Stars episode that getting sober caused “a huge shift in my life.”
“Everything I had known from the time I was 5 years old suddenly ended [after Full House] and it was like saying goodbye to a family I had loved very, very much,” she noted. “At such a young age it really was a huge loss for me, I didn’t know how to grieve. Drugs and alcohol just sort of numbed everything.”
Sweetin continued: “I was doing cocaine and ecstasy and alcohol and all of that. The darkest moments for me weren’t necessarily winding up in the hospital or anything like that. It was those quiet moments alone when I just hated the person I had become.”
During her latest podcast interview, Sweetin clarified that she had her “last drink” in 2011.
“It’s been such a journey — the work I did in 12-step programs, the work I did in outside programs and therapy and also just kind of growing up and, and perspective, all of those things,” she said. “You get the opportunity to become a different person and once you start actually liking that person, it becomes really hard to go back and continue destructive behavior. You kind of go, ‘Oh, wait, hold on, I want to take care of this little person inside here and see what they’re capable of.’ And I’ve been really fortunate to be able to do that. I’ve definitely fallen flat along the way and learned hard lessons.”
The actress concluded, “For so long, I think people like me use drugs and alcohol to not at all be attached to who they are, and so to be like, ‘No, no, no, I like me, I don’t need anything, I’m good,’ is very freeing.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
