The Saddest Parts of Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Life

Jennifer Love Hewitt had a career that many young actors would aspire to. She became famous very early and spent years as one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, she was ubiquitous, appearing in movies and a variety of merchandise, but like many child and teen stars, her glamorous life was overshadowed by a darker reality.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jennifer Love Hewitt (@jenniferlovehewitt)

She was bullied as a kid

Even before she was famous, Jennifer was dealing with haters. After moving from Texas to California, she was treated as a weirdo, instead of being seen as talented or ambitious. She’s spoken about feeling judged at school, and even some adults around her didn’t seem very supportive. Rather than encouraging her, they acted as if wanting an acting career was a burden.

Fame hurt her

Once Jennifer got famous, things were still getting weird. Instead of letting her just be a young actress building a career, the media became obsessed with her appearance, especially her body. After I Know What You Did Last Summer, people started asking her questions that were wildly inappropriate. And when you take into account how young she was, it’s just hyper-weird that the interviewers objectified and sexualized her, like she was a piece of meat, and the whole thing was brushed off as normal celebrity culture at the time.

The body-shaming took a lasting toll

Jennifer was subjected to intense public body-shaming after beach photos of her circulated in the media. She later said the criticism affected not only her, but also the many young women who saw those headlines and internalized the message behind them. At the time, she tried to project confidence, but later acknowledged that the scrutiny had a deeper impact than she initially admitted. In reflecting on the experience, she said the insecurity was not something she had carried before in the same way, but something that grew under constant tabloid attention. More troublingly, she later made clear that the emotional effects never fully went away. It was a reminder that this kind of public humiliation can leave lasting damage, long after media attention has faded.