Sad Details About Hallmark Star Alison Sweeney

The following article contains references to eating disorders. 

Too many former child stars go off the deep end, but Hallmark actor Alison Sweeney transitioned to adulthood with no public meltdowns, brushes with the law, or rehab stints. Still, growing up in the entertainment biz wasn't an entirely pleasant experience.

Sweeney began acting at age 4. In an interview with Fox News, she credited her vigilant parents for ensuring she was never placed in unsafe situations. Addressing the allegations some former Nickelodeon stars made in the docuseries "Quiet on the Set," she said, "When I was watching the trailer, I thought to myself, 'This is exactly what my mother worked so hard to protect me from as a child actor.'" While Sweeney was never the victim of predatory adults, she experienced some painful moments during her early career. Dealing with rejection was never easy, and when one of her auditions was unsuccessful, the feedback she received wasn't always delivered in the friendliest manner. "It can be tough to hear criticism, particularly when you're a kid," she writes in her book "All The Days Of My Life (so Far)."

Sweeney's acting career also failed to impress her classmates. She was lonely and had few friends, writing, "I remember being shunned by most of the girls at school. ... I was shy and had trouble fitting in." It probably didn't help matters when she got cast on "Days of Our Lives" at age 16, as some of the girls who tormented her had to be a teensy bit jealous of her success. She also found that life as a soap star could be overwhelming.

In "All The Days Of My Life (so Far)," Alison Sweeney recalls having a recurring nightmare about oversleeping early in her soap opera career. "It was a terrifying dream, and ever since, I've always been petrified of being late to the set," she writes. She also had to abandon her dream of getting a college degree because her hectic work schedule meant that she couldn't always make it to class on time.

Sweeney eventually found something else she could do while working on "Days of Our Lives": hosting "The Biggest Loser." To keep her energy level high enough to help her make it through her long days of filming, she began chugging coffee. "I had a wake-up call when a caffeine-triggered panic attack left me short of breath," she told Redbook. After seven years of juggling her roles on the soap and the reality competition, she started to get burned out. "I didn't sleep well and I was stressed out all the time," she told the Belleville News-Democrat. "I was a hamster on the wheel and I didn't see a way off. ... I couldn't take a break. I suffered for it. My health suffered for it." 

She decided to exit "DOOL" in 2014, which would finally give her a chance to take a breather and allow her to pursue other opportunities. But saying goodbye wasn't easy. Of what she believed would be her last day filming the show, she told Fox News, "My face was red and blotchy almost all day. It was very, very emotional."

Alison Sweeney could have become bulimic, just like her "Days of Our Lives" character. "But my body wouldn't let me vomit," she writes in "All The Days Of My Life (so Far)." She also developed an unhealthy relationship between her weight and her emotional state; she obsessively checked the scale, which determined how high her level of misery would rise.

Unfortunately, Sweeney also encountered people who reinforced her belief that she needed to change her body. "I auditioned for a really popular nighttime soap opera in the '90s or early 2000s, and they told my agent, 'Send her back when she's lost 20 pounds,'" she recalled to "State of Mind." Instead, she turned to food for comfort, and she didn't realize how misleading that "low-fat" label on her sugary snacks was. She also fell for the false promises of fad diets. "I had tried everything — the shakes, the cabbage-soup diet. I did a cleanse one time, too," she told Good Housekeeping.

Getting educated is what finally helped Sweeney change the eating habits that were making her so miserable. She realized that the processed sugar had to go, and she began eating fewer carbs and more protein. When she met "The Biggest Loser" star Jillian Michaels, the trainer helped her further improve her diet by encouraging her to add complex carbohydrates, such as quinoa, to her meals. Michaels also offered her some workout recommendations. "I learned that it's vital to find a balance and be well-rounded in my exercise, too," said Sweeney.

If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

When she embarked on her fitness journey, Alison Sweeney discovered one exercise she especially enjoyed: long-distance running. The "Open By Christmas" star also found that gliding over real snow — not the fake stuff that's sometimes used in her Hallmark movies — can be extremely exhilarating. "Skiing is one of my favorite ways to workout because it doesn't seem like fitness — it's too much fun!" she wrote on Instagram in December 2016. Just a few days later, she revealed that all that frosty fun had resulted in her tearing her ACL. After celebrating the holidays and filming "Murder, She Baked: Just Desserts" while injured, she had to undergo surgery. "It's amazing how hard a workout is when recovering from injury," she later told NewBeauty. However, she's lucky that she was able to start exercising again.

Years earlier, Sweeney had suffered another knee injury that made it impossible for her to run. Even more frustrating, doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. "The second I picked up the pace to a trot, I felt sharp, shooting pain," she recalled to Runner's World in 2013. She could only hope that the injury resolved itself — but it didn't. "It made me cry to think I couldn't run anymore," she said. She didn't give up, however. Sweeney found a trainer who helped her tweak her running form, and she also incorporated more stretching into her workouts. Eventually, she was able to get back out there and pound the pavement.

"Days of Our Lives" viewers are a passionate bunch, and some fans apparently get so invested in Sami Brady's life that they forget it's a work of fiction. This is evident when they accost Alison Sweeney in public and fail to separate the actor from her character. "They might blurt out something like, 'I watch Days all the time and I hate you so much!'" Sweeney writes in "All The Days Of My Life (so Far)." She's also had a fan interrupt her and her husband, David Sanov, when they were sharing a romantic moment. On another occasion, a fan tried to hit Sweeney with her purse because she was angry about a "DOOL" storyline.

Sweeney has even had to take out a restraining order against a fan. In 2017, E! News obtained legal documents describing how a man named Jon Christopher LuVisi stalked her online for years. He claimed that he and Sweeney had an affair and threatened to go public with their fictional relationship unless she gave him money. The harassment and unhinged allegations got so out of control that Sweeney began to feel like LuVisi posed a real danger to her and her family. Her request for legal intervention listed some of LuVisi's frightening messages to her, including one that read, "You can't hide from me you sorry ass b***h." No wonder she was so rattled! She was first granted a temporary restraining order, which was later extended to three years. 

In 2019, Alison Sweeney shared a makeup-free Instagram photo that revealed the skin cancer on her nose. "I just got off the phone with my dermatologist. Kind of a bummer, but turns out I need to have a small bump removed," she wrote. Sweeney told Sun & Skin News that she was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, despite a history of being rather militant about her sunscreen usage. This may explain why she initially believed that the bump on her nose was just a stubborn pimple. Even after learning that it was actually cancerous, Sweeney's dermatologist had a difficult time convincing her just how serious her diagnosis was. "The Wedding Veil" actor wanted to delay undergoing treatment because she had a family vacation planned. However, she recalled her dermatologist saying to her, "I'm telling you, this is not a joke."

Sweeney admitted that she was concerned about how the surgery to remove the cancer would affect her appearance. "I was very sort of nervous about it, I mean that's my job," she told Survivornet. "Not just how my nose was going to look, but what were people going to think." Her father also had basal cell carcinoma, and the results of his surgery were noticeable.

Sweeney's cancer was removed in layers during multiple sessions. "I'm thinking, 'You're gouging out who knows how much of my nose!'" she recalled to Sun & Skin News. But in the end, her nose healed up nicely. More importantly, her doctor was able to remove all of the cancer.