Jennie Garthis opening up about her struggles with mental health, substance abuse and self-worth 36 years afterBeverly Hills 90210launched her into superstardom.
In a new interview withPEOPLEpublished on Wednesday, Garth, 54, shares that she faced imposter syndrome in the 1990s as her anxiety from constant exposure as a teen star led to "a very isolated existence."
“I was so hard on myself,” she says, writing about the pressures to be skinny and beautiful as a young actress in Hollywood in her new memoir,I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose, and Embracing Reinvention, out April 14.
Garth says her depression seeped into her marriage to Peter Facinelli, with whomshe shares three daughters— Luca, Lola, and Fiona. The couple met in 1995 on the set ofAn Unfinished Affairbefore getting engaged and tying the knot in 2001. Facinelli filed for divorce 11 years later, and their split was finalized in 2013.
PEOPLE reports that, in her book, Garth writes that the breakdown of her marriage led to struggles with substance abuse. One night, she drank and took pills to the point of needing her stomach pumped, and eventually checked into Canyon Ranch rehab center for treatment to learn how to stop self-medicating in harmful ways.
"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 tells PEOPLE of life after divorce. "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. 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.'"
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Garth andTwilightactor Facinelli now havea solid co-parenting relationshipas their daughters are now in their late teens and 20s.
She is also living a peaceful, sober life with her new husband, Dave Abrams, who is 10 years her junior. After years of failed IVF attempts andsubsequent miscarriages, the couple also went through a rough patch and separated for almost a year in 2018. They reconciled andcelebrated their 10th wedding anniversarylast 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 ... when all the while I was thinking, 'I don't really want another baby,'" Garth says in the interview, noting that Abrams expressed to her that he was happy just being with her and her daughters.
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"It all comes down to we're trying to people-please," she says. "We're trying to do what other people want or what other people expect or what we should do. But once you get past all of that, and you really get to the core of what you want for your life? That’s when everything seems to get easier."
Of her new motto, Garth adds, "Even though it took a while, I’m finally at a place [where I'm] comfortable choosing myself."
Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
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