Tragic Details About Amanda Bynes' Life
Social media users are concerned for Amanda Bynes after learning about the biggest revelations from the Nickelodeon docuseries "Quiet on Set." The 4-part documentary saw several former child actors from the network speak up about the abuse they suffered while working there. One of the documentary's subjects was Bynes' "The Amanda Show," co-star Drake Bell, who claimed that he was sexually abused by the sitcom's vocal coach, Brian Peck. After watching the series, some users took to X, formerly Twitter, to share questionable clips of Bynes' time working on "The Amanda Show."
One particularly disgusting video showed a gag from the kid's show where a young Bynes had to brush her teeth using Bell's toes. Although the moment is undoubtedly inappropriate on its own, it's made even worse by the fact that the show's creator, Dan Schneider, is widely rumored to have a foot fetish. Through the years, we haven't learned much about Bynes' past working with Schneider, and the 2024 docuseries didn't offer any insight into their working relationship because she wasn't a part of it.
A source later told TMZ that the "She's All That" star chose not to appear in "Quiet on Set" because she didn't believe her experiences matched the accusers in the series. The insider further explained that Bynes had a soft spot for her former employer because they had kickstarted her career. After her time with Nickelodeon concluded, Bynes went on to appear in a handful of movies before quitting acting altogether for a heartbreaking reason.
Body image issues led her to quit acting
In 2010, 24-year-old Amanda Bynes tweeted that she was permanently walking away from acting because it didn't bring her joy. The tweet came as a surprise since she had only made her triumphant entry to the big screen as an adult a few years prior. She revealed that body image issues played a big part in her decision to quit acting in a 2018 interview with Paper.
She recalled seeing herself on screen as a boy for her role in the 2006 flick "She's The Man" and starting to despise herself. "I went into a deep depression for 4 to 6 months because I didn't like the way I looked as a boy," Bynes admitted. Similarly, when she watched her performance for "Hall Pass," a movie she later dropped out of, she could only focus on the size of her arms and felt they were far too big.
Unfortunately, her self-esteem issues worsened, and they spiraled out of control when she worked on "Easy A" in 2010. She explained, "I literally couldn't stand my appearance in that movie, and I didn't like my performance. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it." So, Bynes tweeted about her retirement but later wished she had taken a more formal route, like a press release. In a 2017 interview with Hollyscoop founder Diana Madison, Bynes shared that she intended to return to acting, but sadly, her plans haven't come to fruition as of April 2024.
Amanda Bynes has been battling substance abuse issues
In Amanda Bynes' Paper interview, she shared that her slippery slope into drug addiction started with occasional marijuana use when she was 16. Then, she tried out a variety of drugs before getting addicted to Adderall because it had gained a reputation as "the new skinny pill." The former Nickelodeon star shared that the drug gravely affected her acting talents in "Hall Pass." "I remember chewing on a bunch of [Adderall] and literally being scatterbrained and not being able to focus on my lines or memorize them for that matter," she said.
She also reasoned that her substance abuse may have greatly contributed to her distorted self-image and altered her personality for the worse. The "Hairspray" actor admitted that her drug use only worsened after she quit acting because she didn't know what to do with herself. At the time of her Paper interview, she was proud to share that she was four years sober, but unfortunately, drugs reportedly caught hold of her again.
In March 2023, Bynes was put on a 72-hour psychiatric hold after she called the police for herself following a walk around Los Angeles without any clothes on. A source tragically revealed that Bynes seemed to be abusing prescription drugs because she had lost a tremendous amount of weight. Bynes was put under a second psych hold in June 2023, and a source told Entertainment Tonight that she was actively trying her hardest to remain sober but relapsed because she failed to be regular with her prescribed medication.
Her relationship with her parents has been a rollercoaster
Amanda Bynes sought to legally emancipate from her parents, Rick and Lynn Bynes, when she was about 17 and kept her intentions a secret from them. Ultimately, she didn't go through with her plans. In 2014, the former child actor took to X to write a series of tweets accusing her father of sexually, physically, and mentally abusing her and ridiculing her looks.
However, she later went back on her claims by writing, "My dad never did any of those things The microchip in my brain made me say those things but he's the one that ordered them to microchip me" (via The Hollywood Reporter). Through a statement released to People, Lynn shared that she couldn't stomach her daughter's supposedly false claims and stressed that Rick had always done right by all his kids. The mother of three further explained that Amanda's tweets were a sad reflection of how she was losing her grip on reality.
The former actor's siblings, Tommy Bynes and Jillian O'Keefe, released a statement to TMZ offering their parents their unyielding support and condemning Amanda's erratic behavior. However, it seems like their relationship eventually mended, as the "Sydney White" star credited her parents with helping her on her sobriety journey in her 2018 Paper interview. In 2021, an insider told E! News that Amanda and her parents had only grown closer after the pandemic because they truly missed seeing each other during quarantine.
She has had several run-ins with the law
Amanda Bynes' legal troubles started in 2012 with her first DUI arrest. Later in the year, she faced formal charges for two hit-and-run incidents that occurred in August and April of that year. She pleaded not guilty to all three offenses, and both her hit-and-run charges were settled privately in 2012. She took a plea deal for her DUI charges in February 2014 by pleading no contest to reckless driving. Bynes received a 3-year probation with a mandatory alcohol education course and had to shell out a fine. The former child actor was once again arrested for DUI in September 2014, but the charge was dismissed in 2015.
In 2013, the "What I Like About You" star's building managers called the police to have a word with Bynes because she was smoking pot in the lobby. However, when police arrived, they saw her throw a bong out of her high-rise. The marijuana possession and reckless endangerment charges from the incident were tossed in June because Bynes stayed in line with the court's orders to stay out of legal troubles and attend counseling two times per week.
Unfortunately, she got herself into serious trouble in July 2013 by starting a small fire outside a California home. However, she didn't face arson charges because authorities determined she wasn't trying to cause harm by setting a house on fire, but she didn't walk out of the incident unscathed.
She was under a conservatorship for nine years
After Amanda Bynes started a small fire outside a house, she was put on an involuntary psychiatric hold to ascertain that she wouldn't cause any harm to those around her. A few days after the incident, the retired actor's parents filed for temporary conservatorship of their daughter. Amanda's parents were gravely concerned about her finances after learning that she had spent over a million dollars in a short period of time.
The outlet reported that she had withdrawn around $200,000 through two transactions in a month, and her parents believed she was buying drugs with some of the hefty sums. In August 2013, Amanda's mom, Lynn Bynes, was deemed the temporary conservator of her finances. Amanda's conservatorship restarted in October 2014 after she started exorbitantly spending her money and engaging in harmful behavior. According to documents obtained by TMZ, Amanda's net worth had greatly reduced because she was supposedly purchasing luxurious gifts for strangers. The former child star's parents reportedly used her September DUI arrest and shoplifting allegations as proof of her irresponsible behavior.
In February 2022, the "Rugrats" voice actor had filed to end her conservatorship. Her lawyer, David A. Esquibias, told People that her conservatorship hadn't been granted for the entirety of 2023, explaining, "It is open day to day," adding, "Her conservatorship will terminate when it is no longer convenient for Amanda." On March 22, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Roger Lund deemed the conservatorship unnecessary and ended it.