Jennifer Love Hewitt was one of the biggest stars of the 1990s. She went from Disney Channel to Party of Five and then films like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Can’t Hardly Wait. She also had a run as the lead in Ghost Whisperer which gave her a loyal following even if critics didn’t really like it.

Her career picked up steam when she was only 10 years old and landed a role on Kids Incorporated. That show had other faces who became big names, including Mario Lopez and Fergie. From there, she kept working and eventually became a household name in the late nineties.

She had both hits and criticism in her career. In one review of Heartbreakers, Roger Ebert wrote that she spent “the entire film with her treasures on display, maybe as product placement for the Wonderbra.” Hewitt herself later admitted that being judged on her looks wore her down.

She said in an interview: “It wasn’t actually until later, in the time when I took the step back, that I went ‘ugh.’ It’s the worst, that’s not what I want to be remembered for.”

By the time Ghost Whisperer ended in 2010, she thought they would get another season. She said: “For me, it was a total shock. I thought our next season probably would be the last, just because the show had been on for a really long time. It’s hard to come up with new things that will keep people intrigued, but I never thought in a million years that was going to have been our last season.”

After Ghost Whisperer, she got a Golden Globe nomination for The Client List in 2012, which is also where she met her future husband, Brian Hallisay.

They got married in 2013 and had their first child the same year. More kids followed in 2015 and 2021. She then decided to step away from Hollywood to focus on being a wife and mother in 2015. She said she enjoyed the break, and it helped her put acting in better perspective.

Her mother’s death in 2012 was also a big reason she needed to heal. At the same time, she faced hate online and left Twitter in 2013, writing: “Unfortunately with all the negativity people choose to send on twitter as well as threats to their own well being I’m sad to say Twitter is no longer for me.”

The tabloids were harsh, especially after unflattering bikini photos leaked. Some mocked her weight with cruel headlines. Hewitt fired back with a message to “girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist” telling them to “put on a bikini, put it on, and stay strong.”

More recently, she says she never looks at the scale and does not count calories. She focuses on living healthily and spending time with her family. She returned to acting in 2020 with a role on the TV show 9-1-1 as Maddie Buckley, and she described it as a comeback with “renewed energy and vigor.”

Hewitt said: “I also feel like I have new things to pull from as an actress that I didn’t have before. I think it’s so odd as actors that we, especially kid actors, which I was, we’re expected to pull from all these life experiences that so many of us haven’t had. I feel like I acted for a lot of years from my heart, but not really, truly understanding some of the things that I understand now.”