It’s no surprise that Jodie Sweetin is constantly asked about Full House. The family-friendly sitcom premiered nearly 40 years ago (I know!) and has continued to attract new generations of fans. With the members of the fictional family remaining so close, of course people want to know everything about those Tanner dynamics. Sweetin’s relationship with Candace Cameron Bure remains a big talking point years after their alleged feud, but fans also constantly ask her about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Jodie Sweetin has admitted that she was closer to the Olsen twins — who played Stephanie’s younger sister Michelle on the set of Full House — than she was to Candace Cameron Bure, who played older sister DJ. However, while the two older Tanner sisters will reunite every so often, Sweetin says she doesn’t keep in touch with Mary-Kate and Ashley. She told The McBride Rewind podcast, though that hasn't stopped people from asking her about it:
They kind of, I think, after Full House and growing up and everything, they’ve had an extremely different trajectory than any of the rest of us. People also say, 'Oh do you guys not talk? Is it bad?' No! They were 8 years old when the show finished. We weren't as close as we were. ... It wasn’t like there was bad blood between any of us, but they moved to New York, got married, and had a fashion empire.
Sweetin has pointed out before that all of Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen’s memories of Full House happened when they were eight years old or younger. But for her, Candace Cameron Bure and Andrea Barber (who played Kimmy Gibbler), the show’s eight seasons fell during really formative years of their lives. Sweetin continued:
Article continues belowIf you knew somebody the first eight years of your life, and then you sort of drifted away, how many people do you still talk to from that? It’s not like it’s a bad thing. They don't have as much recollection as I do. It was my formative years. I was 5-13... It was impactful. It was all I ever knew.
There’s also the fact that Jodie Sweetin will always be known as Stephanie Tanner, and for much of the rest of the Full House cast, as well, the San Francisco sitcom with the theme song that still slaps was a career-defining role. That’s not the case for the Olsen twins. Sweetin said:
They did it and then maybe had a few years of remembering it and then went on and did a whole host of other things in their life. Those first eight years get pushed off. We're not as close anymore, and that's OK.
Jodie Sweetin has a lot of empathy for the way they spent their childhood working, and she said she “can’t imagine the BS” they’ve had to go through. She was able to catch up with the twins a few years ago when Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen paid tribute to Bob Saget at his funeral, alongside the rest of their Full House family.
It’s completely understandable that the Olsen twins and Jodie Sweetin have grown in different directions over the years, and I love that the Stephanie Tanner actress has the grace to know that’s OK.
You can see the Tanner family at full strength by streaming all eight seasons of Full House with a Hulu subscription.
