The Biggest Rumors About The Olsen Twins

Long before "Fuller House" started streaming on Netflix, rumors circulated that Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen did not get along with their former castmates. In September 2012, John Stamos uploaded photos from a reunion of the "Full House" cast to Facebook. The main cast were all there including Bob Saget, Dave Coulier, Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, and Lori Loughlin, but the Olsen twins were noticeably absent. Fans were hung up on the Olsens not joining the reunion. Earlier that year, the "New York Minute" actors had announced they were finished with acting. "But if I ever get back in [to Hollywood], it's not going to be as an actress," Ashley told Elle UK in a joint interview with her sister (via the Huffington Post). "[It] just felt right to move away," Mary-Kate added. The retirement still did not explain why the Olsens skipped the reunion.

A few years later, when "Fuller House" was announced, tensions arose between the Olsens and some of their former co-workers. Even Lori Loughlin took a shady dig at Mary-Kate and Ashley for sitting out of the reboot. Later, the show's executive producer, Bob Boyett, cleared the air on why Mary-Kate and Ashley decided to not reprise their role as Michelle Tanner, and it had nothing to do with past vendettas. "Ashley said, 'I have not been in front of a camera since I was 17, and I don't feel comfortable acting,'" Boyett told People in January 2016. Even with that clarification, there were still rumors that the Olsens had major issues with a castmate.

Rumors about why Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen avoided the "Full House" reboot were rampant after popular YouTuber Sloan released a video titled "Inside Bob Saget's Inappropriate Relationship with the Olsen Twins" in March 2021. The video showed clips from "The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget" which aired in 2008 and featured several comedians making jokes that alluded to Saget behaving inappropriately towards the twins. For some fans the video was enough evidence to prove that the Olsens had a distaste for Saget after working together. "Now I really understand why Mary-Kate and Ashley didn't come back for Fuller House," one YouTuber wrote.

Contrary to what the salacious video suggested, the truth about Bob Saget's relationship with Mary-Kate and Ashley is that they stayed good friends through the years. When Mary-Kate and Ashley passed on "Fuller House" he was very understanding. "I love them. I want them to be happy," he told Us Weekly in June 2015. "We're friends. People need to do what they want to do."

When Saget tragically died in January 2022, the twins expressed how close they were with their TV dad. "We are deeply saddened that he is no longer with us but know that he will continue to be by our side to guide us as gracefully as he always has," they said in a statement at the time, per Us Weekly. Saget's death even prompted Mary-Kate and Ashley to be present for the "Full House" reunion at his funeral. While the Saget rumors were seemingly debunked, there had been whispers that the twins had bad blood with John Stamos.

John Stamos not only reprised his role as Jessie Katsopolis on "Fuller House," but he was also an executive producer on the revival series. After the show was announced in April 2015, Mary-Kate Olsen said in an interview that she and Ashley were not made aware of the reboot. When he read that report, Stamos went on the offensive on X, formerly Twitter. "I call bulls***," he wrote alongside a link of the Olsens claiming ignorance (via ABC7 News). It appeared that Uncle Jessie had beef with the twins who played Michelle Tanner, but a month later he changed his tone. "I understand they're in a different place and I wish them the best," Stamos tweeted with an article that officially announced the Olsens would not return for "Fuller House" (via The Hollywood Reporter).

While there may have appeared to be residual bad blood at the time, Stamos later showed how close he was with his former co-stars. In January 2022, Stamos posted a throwback photo from the time the Olsens attended a Broadway play he worked on. "I got a lovely visit from my TV nieces, Mary-Kate & Ashley," Stamos wrote (via Today). A year later John Stamos used Ashley Olsen's baby news to plug his memoir in an Instagram post and mention how tight he was with the "Switching Goals" actors. He later posted a photo to Instagram from Bob Saget's funeral, which included the Olsens. However, The twins were also plagued by rumors that had nothing to do with their days on "Full House."

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's fashion brand, The Row, was supposed to bring a sense of luxury into more people's lives. "The word luxury is used pretty much everywhere now, but for us it's something that makes your life easier," Mary-Kate told i-D in June 2021 (via Verily). Unfortunately, life was not made easier for a number of interns who worked for the child stars turned fashion moguls. A class action suit was filed against the company in August 2015 when around 40 former interns filed a joint-complaint against The Row's parent company Dualstar Entertainment Group. Shahista Lalani, who worked for The Row in 2012, was the main complainant. "They're kind of mean to you. Other interns have cried. I'd see a lot of kids crying doing coffee runs, photocopying stuff," Lalani told Page Six about the designers at The Row in 2015.

While the headline of former interns suing the Olsen twins' company made good fodder, it should be noted that none of the interns worked directly for the "Full House" alums. "They're really nice people. They were never mean to anyone," Lalani said about Mary-Kate and Ashley. A settlement was eventually reached in March 2017 for $140,000. By that time, the number of past and present interns involved in the suit had ballooned to around 180 people. Even though the Olsen twins were committed to their fashion brand there was still chatter that they may return to acting. 

When it was announced that the other famous Olsen sister, Elizabeth Olsen, was getting her own "WandaVision" show there were whispers that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen might appear on the series that made overt references to classic sitcoms. Elizabeth was asked about the prospect of her older sisters making an appearance on the MCU program when she appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to promote the show in January 2021. Kimmel joked that Uncle Joey from "Full House" could make a "WandaVision" cameo. "That would be incredible. It is very meta, the whole thing," Elizabeth responded. 

The prospect of the "Passport to Paris" actors appearing on their sister's show gained traction with fans online. "WandaVision" creator Matt Shakman shut down those rumors in January 2021. "For us, we were faithfully recreating the style of the shows with authenticity. It wasn't about parody or homage or spoof," Shakman told Variety when asked if he considered involving the twins. 

Mary-Kate and Ashley joining the MCU may not have been a real possibility, but after they turned down the "Fuller House" offer John Stamos did reach out to Elizabeth about potentially taking over the role of adult Michelle Tanner on the revival series. "That was weird, because it was also like, 'Leave me out of this. This has nothing to do with me,'" Elizabeth said about the "Fuller House" offer while appearing on the "Everything Iconic With Danny Pellegrino" podcast in April 2018 (via Today). The close bond the twin sisters shared led to perhaps the most strange rumor about them. 

One of the craziest rumors surrounding Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen was spawned after the twins held a fashion show for their The Row clothing brand at New York Fashion Week in February 2018. As they received applause at the end of the show, Ashley stood behind Mary-Kate and could be seen lightly clapping on her sister from behind. The pair then held hands and squeezed each other's hands multiple times. Fans tried to interpret the Olsen twins' secret hand signals, and they came up with some wild theories. "[S]o weird and eccentric that this hand signal could be about Iran's power plant —  we just don't know," a Tumblr user theorized (via The Sun).

The meaning behind their hand signals is far more wholesome. As the former "Full House" actors revealed to E! in a 2009 interview. "We have this little thing when we love each other where we'll squeeze each other like three times," a young Mary-Kate said. "Then I'll squeeze her hand back four times. Like, 'I love you, too,'" she added.

The twins had developed stealth ways of communicating due to being famous from such a young age. "We were raised to be discreet people," Ashley told i-D in a joint interview with her sister in June 2021 (via Us Weekly). "Our instincts are kind of the same," she added while discussing their fashion sensibilities. It seems being guarded about their personal lives has led to many of these rumors starting.