In the ’90s, Jennie Garth made a name for herself as one of the stars of Beverly Hills, 90210.
Now, in her debut memoir, the TV icon is revealing that her adulthood has not always been as picture perfect as her youth.
The book, titled Choosing Me, doesn’t come out until next week, but Garth opened up about her painful past in a new interview.
Garth says she hit rock bottom around the time of her 2013 divorce from Peter Facinelli.
“I spent a good amount of years being hurt, sad, just tormented by it, and it eked out into all aspects of my life,” Garth recalled, adding:
“I noticed my light really dimming. I wasn’t putting off good vibes. I could see it in the mirror. I could look at the negative impact that that kind of grief and anger was having on me.”
At her lowest point, Jennie says, she needed to have her stomach pumped after overdosing on alcohol and prescription pills.
She later checked into Canyon Ranch rehab and addressed the root causes of her substance abuse issues.
“And there was a weird switch where one day I just said, ‘I don’t want to carry this anymore. It’s impacting my relationships and how I feel about myself. I’ve got to let it go. I’ve got to forgive him.’”
Garth admits that her third marriage, to Dave Abrams, has also had its ups and downs.
The couple separated in 2018, but reconciled the following year.
“I really wanted to give Dave a baby because he was young and all of his friends were having kids and I just thought that’s what he needed,” Garth says, adding:
“It all comes down to people-pleasing. Once you really get to the core of what you want for your life? That’s when everything seems to get easier.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Garth opened up about the pressures of instant fame at an early age.
“It was like being in The Beatles,” she said.
“There was no preparation for it. It was scary and unknown for all of us, and it was like sink or swim, just survive and figure it out as you go. It was major on-the-job training.”
Thankfully, all these years later, it seems that Jennie has finally found happiness in her career, in her marriage, and with her three daughters.
Choosing Me will be in bookstores on April 14.