Jodie Sweetin was living in a small apartment with less than $200 in her bank account before starring in Netflix reboot Fuller House.
The 44-year-old actress revealed that the earnings from her childhood role on the hit sitcom Full House were entirely consumed by rehabilitation costs before she achieved sobriety in 2011.
Speaking on actress Natanya Ross's podcast We're Still Here, Babe, Sweetin described the financial desperation she endured while raising two young children as a single mother.
She recalled learning painful lessons about humility during everyday shopping trips when her debit card failed at the cash register.
"[It’s] not like I was ever a materialistic person, but you learn humility when you are at Target and you got to turn around and go put some s-t back ’cause you don’t have the money on your debit card," Sweetin said.
Sweetin first rose to international prominence as a child playing middle daughter Stephanie Tanner on the iconic ABC comedy Full House from 1987 to 1995. The long-running family sitcom made her a household name alongside castmates Bob Saget, John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Candace Cameron Bure.
The financial collapse occurred while Sweetin was raising her two young daughters: Zoie, now 18, and Beatrix, now 16. She shares Zoie with ex-husband Cody Herpin, and Beatrix with ex-husband Morty Coyle.
Sweetin opened up about the emotional toll of that era during her conversation on Natanya Ross's podcast We're Still Here, Babe, recounting how she had to rebuild her life away from the Hollywood spotlight.
Employment outside Hollywood
In order to earn income while undergoing addiction treatment, Sweetin took an administrative job far removed from the entertainment industry, working as a director of operations.
"I was happy," Sweetin said of her time in the corporate role. "And I think part of the reason that I was able to come back into the business and enjoy it truly is that I had gone completely in the other direction. I was just working a normal job."
During that period, the actress lived in a one-and-a-half-bedroom apartment with her two daughters on an income of just $2,200. She credited her parents with stepping in to help cover the other half of her monthly rent.
"I was just trying to get by," Sweetin said. "[I] drove an old used car."
She emphasized that she felt no embarrassment about taking an ordinary job after years of television stardom, even when onlookers expressed surprise at seeing her in an office.
"I didn’t have [an] ego about it," Sweetin said. "I didn’t care that I was 'working a normal job.' I think other people, again, were like, 'What are you doing here?' And I was like, 'I’m paying my bills. … Kids don’t pay for themselves.'"
Sweetin explained that navigating those lean years taught her how to cultivate happiness regardless of external difficulties.
"I just threw myself into being present, as fully present as I could be, and that old, you know, ‘bloom where you’re planted’ kind of vibe," she said.
Borrowing money for Fuller House
Sweetin's circumstances began to shift when Netflix announced a revival of the classic franchise with the sequel series Fuller House in 2016. However, landing the high-profile streaming series did not immediately rescue her from poverty.
The sequel series reunited Sweetin with original co-stars Candace Cameron Bure, who played older sister D.J. Tanner, and Andrea Barber, who returned as quirky neighbor Kimmy Gibbler. The show proved popular with nostalgic viewers and ran for five seasons on Netflix from 2016 to 2020.
Yet as cameras began rolling on the first season, Sweetin was still struggling to cover day-to-day living costs.
"I had to borrow money the first week I was working on ‘Fuller House,’ and I skidded into my first paycheck with, like, $190 in my bank account," Sweetin revealed. "And nobody that I worked with knew that. Not that I cared."
The actress said enduring such intense financial strain ultimately reshaped her relationship with wealth and status.
"I’ve been very fortunate to know a lot of really wonderful things, but I have had those experiences where there’s no money," Sweetin explained. "And your ego can’t be involved."
Public scrutiny and drug addiction
This is not the first time Sweetin has addressed her substance abuse openly. During a July 2025 appearance on Teen Mom star Kailyn Lowry's podcast Barely Famous, she admitted to past abuse of cocaine, crystal meth, and ecstasy.
Sweetin clarified that she did not use drugs while filming Full House as a child. However, after the show concluded, her battle with substance abuse became a dominant topic of media attention throughout her 20s.
"And because people know who you are, it never kind of goes away from it being in the public eye," Sweetin said of the intense coverage.
She pointed out that while millions of people grapple with chemical dependency, her own struggles became heavily sensationalized solely because of her celebrity status.
"I always say, I would have struggled with addiction issues regardless of being on TV or not," she said.
Sweetin acknowledged that her childhood fame had both advantages and drawbacks during her recovery journey.
"And to be fair, that gave me some of the ability to be able to find treatment and find help in ways that I might not have had I not worked as a child," Sweetin said. "But it's very hard [when] you have to make all your mistakes publicly."
Marriage and television comeback
Sweetin has since established stability in her personal life. She has been married to clinical social worker Mescal Wasilewski since 2022.
The actress has continued to work steadily across television. Earlier this year, Sweetin competed on the HGTV reality series Totally 90s House, where she teamed up with fellow 1990s television stars Brian Austin Green of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Beverley Mitchell of 7th Heaven.
The competition placed the three former child stars together to tackle nostalgic home renovation challenges, marking another chapter in Sweetin's enduring television career.
