'I Made Some Crashingly Stupid Mistakes': Hayley Mills Talks About Growing Up Famous

You can almost tell how old someone is based on who they think is the star of "The Parent Trap." Younger generations are likely to think of Lindsay Lohan, who starred in the 1998 version, while older generations think of Hayley Mills, the star of the 1961 version. Mills was a big Disney star in her youth; along with "The Parent Trap," she was in "Pollyanna," "In Search of the Castaways," and more. Like many child stars, Mills had a hard time adjusting to life as an adult. Thankfully she wasn't one of the child stars who tragically died young, but life wasn't exactly smooth sailing. On an episode of "The Rosebud Podcast," Mills discussed some of her past choices. "I made some crashingly stupid mistakes," she said.

Once her Disney contract was done, things got really challenging for Mills. "I didn't have a sensible enough sense of my career and what I ought to be doing," she revealed on "The Rosebud Podcast," adding, "but I didn't want to do more Disney movies. I wanted to spread my wings and have a greater choice and not be limited by that." 

Even when Mills stopped working for Disney, the company still held her back in a way. "I found it awfully difficult to get both feet into womanhood because there was a part of me that didn't want to disappoint people that [think], 'Oh, she's not that cute little girl anymore, she's what?' I didn't know," Mills admitted. All of us can recognize the challenges of becoming someone different as you grow up, but most of us don't have the added pressure of figuring it out in the public eye.

Hayley Mills didn't go into too many details on "The Rosebud Podcast" about every slip-up she made during that tough life transition. One of the blunders she did mention, though, was turning down a part that she thought was "too small" in the TV movie "Hindle Wakes" that Laurence Olivier was directing. "I didn't understand," Mills explained. "There is no such thing as a small part, just small actors ... That was a big mistake."

Hayley's sister, Juliet Mills, also participated in the interview and shared her opinion of a mistake in Hayley's younger years: her marriage to film director and producer Roy Boulting. He was more than 30 years older than her, making them one of the celebrity couples with the biggest age difference. The sisters discussed how Juliet, even more than their parents, wanted to make sure that Hayley knew what she was doing by getting together with a much older man.

Then there was the issue of Hayley's finances. She made a lot of money working for Disney, but it wasn't managed well. When she was able to get to her cash at the age of 21, over 90% of it had to be paid as taxes since the trust wasn't set up correctly. That led to another regret in her life: having to move to America for work. This also meant that her son was sent to boarding school when he was just 10. "I didn't want him to go, but I wasn't there," Hayley told The Times. Fortunately, she looked happy and healthy on "The Rosebud Podcast."