Dove Cameron is shedding light on the emotional toll of fame, opening up about her mental health battles and personal hardships in a candid interview on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.
The 29-year-old actress and singer, best known for her dual role in Disney Channel’s Liv and Maddie (2013–2017), reflected on the challenges of growing up in the spotlight and navigating intense fan attention during her formative years.
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“I think I surprised myself by being more introverted than I anticipated,” Cameron said during the podcast. She continued, “You truly don’t know until you’re put into that situation. And then you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m very introverted.’”
Despite her bubbly on-screen persona, Cameron revealed that the reality of public life left her overwhelmed. “I didn’t really learn how to navigate fan attention or public attention for many years. I used to have full panic attacks,” she confessed.
Beyond the pressures of fame, Cameron endured profound personal grief. She shared that her father died by suicide shortly before she began filming her Disney series—an event that left an indelible mark on her youth.
“There was so much going on in my personal life,” she explained. “That’s going to affect any kid. When you’re 15 and that happens, it changes the course of your life.”
Recalling the difficult period, Cameron added, “There was no way for me to wrap my head around it. Understand it, conceptualise it. We were at his funeral, and then like, on Bainbridge Island.”
Her early career success, while enviable from the outside, was shadowed by grief and emotional isolation. “It was almost like [at] the beginning of my career, I was so shrouded by this heavy cloud that it didn’t hit me that I was a famous person until years later,” she admitted.
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Cameron described the early days on set as unpredictable and emotionally complex. “I would come to work every day and some days would be good and some days would be bad, and everybody was super protective of me,” she said.
Still, acting served as a lifeline during turbulent times. “It was kind of like a volatile time in my life in general, just being a teenager, being on TV was a great escape,” she noted. Cameron’s honest reflections resonate with many young stars navigating fame, reminding fans of the often unseen challenges behind the glamour.
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