Inside Jodie Sweetin's Relationship With Candace Cameron Bure
Jodie Sweetin and Candace Cameron Bure have been friends since they were little girls playing sisters Stephanie and DJ Tanner on the hit ABC TGIF sitcom "Full House." Bure, known then as Candace Cameron, already had an older brother on his own ABC sitcom, as Kirk Cameron starred as Mike Seaver on "Growing Pains" (via Biography). Sweetin was new to the television scene.
The girls teamed up to play two sisters who had tragically and suddenly lost their mother, and their father, Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), invited his brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos) and best friend Joey (Dave Coulier) to live with him and help raise his three girls, including baby Michelle (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen). A hit sitcom was born that would give birth to a reboot called "Fuller House" two decades after the first series ended in 1995 (via IMDb). Through it all, Bure and Sweetin have remained close friends who are there for each other through good times and bad.
A lifelong friendship for Jodie Sweetin and Candace Cameron Bure
When "Fuller House" premiered in 2016, reuniting much of the original cast of "Full House," Jodie Sweetin and Candace Cameron Bure looked back on a friendship that goes back to girlhood. "It's been lifelong friends. I would say the only people I've known longer than my 'Full House' family are my parents and my actual family," Sweetin told People. "Then this family we've all seen each other grow up and go through everything in life, so to be able to bring that back onscreen is awesome."
Bure added her own thoughts to this relationship that has spanned the decades and all the life changes friends go through while still remaining a constant part of one another's lives. "We have each other's backs. I think that's cool," said Bure. "In any industry it doesn't matter which one, there is always competition and there can be healthy competition, but when you are genuinely close friends or as close as sisters, you've got each other's backs," she told People. "So we all want to make sure we're all doing the best job we can, and looking as great as we can, being seen in the best light as possible, and if we see that within one another, that someone's not treating someone well, we all just step up for one another."
Candace Cameron Bure and Jodie Sweetin are travel buddies
In 2017, "Fuller House" took Candace Cameron Bure and Jodie Sweetin on a trip of a lifetime to Tokyo, where they filmed the episode titled "My Best Friend's Japanese Wedding" (via IMDb). At the time, Bure was thrilled to be traveling with her lifelong friend on a dream vacation that also involved some work.
"This girl. If I'm ever gonna travel with 1 person in a foreign country when neither of us speak the language, it's gonna be this girl. @jodiesweetin," Bure posted on Facebook next to a selfie of them in the back of a car after arriving in Japan.
Bure explained to the outlet Fame about growing up with all these other young girls around her on a television set, telling stories about both adult and childhood friendship, as well as sisterhood. "I felt like I had all of these soul sisters and a bigger family. So ... I kind of [got the feeling] of what [it's] like to have a big family other than just my parents and I in real life," she said.
Candace Cameron Bure was there for Jodie Sweetin when she needed her most
Both Jodie Sweetin and Candace Cameron Bure have been there for each other through good times and bad, ever since they were small girls. In 2017, Sweetin was going through a particularly rough time in her life after a breakup with fiance Justin Hodak, whom she had to get a restraining order against. He was arrested twice for violating it and Sweetin had to call the police a third time when Hodak threatened to commit suicide and had illegally-obtained firearms at her house, according to E! News.
Bure later gave an update on her friend to E! News. "She's doing great," Bure said. "She's being a trooper and handling everything with grace." She added, "We're all super supportive of her, so she's good. She's in a very good place."
Bure talked with Closer Weekly in 2019, discussing her relationship both with Sweetin and with Andrea Barber, who played DJ's BFF, Kimmie Gibler. "Just like any friends, we talk all the time. It's not just when we're at work, but we show up for each other."