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‘90210’ star Jennie Garth rose to fame seemingly overnight in the 1990s, just like Ricki. After successful careers, kids at young ages, and multiple marriages, Ricki and Jennie chat about their latest era of choosing themselves. Jennie also shares stories from her ‘90210’ days, including hiding her pregnancy and nearly getting fired. Plus, why she loves cemeteries.

Head over to Jennie’s I Choose Me podcast feed to listen to Part 1 of this conversation, where Jennie interviews Ricki!

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Ricki Lake, Kelly, Jennie Garth

Ricki Lake  00:02

This is The High Life With me, Ricki Lake, where we get to find out how my guests crack the code to living a full and vibrant life so you can too. I am so excited to welcome to the show beloved actress Jennie Garth now I remember watching her in the iconic role of Kelly Taylor on Beverly Hills 9020 during its 10 year run in the 90s. Well, Kelly was such a likable and relatable character on the show, and part of what sealed the deal for me was on season five, when Kelly had to choose between Brandon and Dylan.

 

Kelly  00:35

I’ve made my choice, and I choose me. I hope you understand I’ll love you both till the day I die.

 

Ricki Lake  00:44

She says, instead, I choose me. Well, I choose me. Is now Jenny’s personal anthem since 9020, Jenny has created a clothing line called me, and a podcast she hosts called I choose me. But that’s not all. Jennie also starred opposite Amanda Bynes on the popular sitcom. What I like about you, and she also had her own reality show, wow. Jennie Garth, a little bit of country on CMT. We have so much in common, and I can’t wait to talk to her about her commitment to her own self love. I think it’s awesome. Hi, Jennie.

 

Jennie Garth  01:16

Hello, Ricki.

 

Ricki Lake  01:17

Such a pleasure, we start my podcast with the same question for all of our guests, where are you getting your highs right now? What’s bringing you joy? Big or small?

 

Jennie Garth  01:30

I’ve been working really hard lately, traveling so much more so than any time in my career. If you can imagine, wow, yeah, and it’s been amazing. But when I come home, all I want to do is water my plants like all I want to do is go outside in the quiet nature and hold a hose.

 

Ricki Lake  01:51

How are they doing in this heat? We just had this massive heat wave. Did everything survive? Things are shriveled, because I also have quite the garden. Here you have amazing gardens.

 

Jennie Garth  02:01

It’s heaven.

 

Ricki Lake  02:03

I give the credit where credit is due. My friend John, Bonnie, did everything like I tell everybody that anybody comes and says, it looks great, it’s because of him. It’s really not because of me. I let him have free reign. And I also grow cannabis, I grow vegetables, and even someday, let me be presumptuous, come over and see our garden, it’s really.

 

Jennie Garth  02:19

I would love to I’ve seen them on social media, but it looks beautiful.

 

Ricki Lake  02:24

It doesn’t do it justice. So someday you’ll come over. Okay, we gotta go back to your origin story. Of course, you were so young when you did 9020, no. How old were you? And how did that even come about for you? Where do you come from?

 

Jennie Garth  02:36

Where do I come from? I’m from the Midwest. I’m from Illinois, way out in the country. That’s what we called it. And we lived on a farm in the middle of cornfields, and I literally played with corn cobs and rode my pink dirt bike around the cemetery that was on our property. Wasn’t our cemetery, it was with the town’s cemetery. And I talked to dead people for fun.

 

Ricki Lake  03:01

Wow. I mean, I live next to a cemetery as well, and I stayed as far away from that place as possible.

 

Jennie Garth  03:08

I found comfort in it. I don’t know. I would ride my bike in there and open up the little chain link fence and just go in and talk to the people, read the things, put flowers around, you know, pick dandelions.

 

Ricki Lake  03:22

Did you want to be an actress?

 

Jennie Garth  03:24

I didn’t have any idea of of what I wanted to be, or any concept or no desires. I was just so happy in this world that my my dad built the house that we lived on. It was 25 acres. We had horses. I had big sisters. I was just so content my whole childhood, and then my dad got sick. He had a heart attack.

 

Ricki Lake  03:48

At what age?

 

Jennie Garth  03:50

I was 12. He was 37, and that pretty much changed the trajectory of my life right there. I don’t think if it had been for that, I’d probably still live in Illinois, like my sister or two of my sisters, but we moved to Arizona from Illinois for my dad’s health, for for the climate would be so he survived. He survived the hardest hit. He survived, yes, but he was not the same man that he was before it happened. And so life really did change on so many levels. And we moved to Arizona, where I went to high school for a few years, and then I got the opportunity to come out to LA.

 

Ricki Lake  04:31

So how old were you when you arrived in Los Angeles?

 

Jennie Garth  04:34

I was 16, 17.

 

Ricki Lake  04:36

Okay were you a working actress when you moved to LA?

 

Jennie Garth  04:41

Well, here’s the thing, I had been in a pageant. I wouldn’t I wanted to be a dancer. I wasn’t very good, but I wanted to be a dancer. And so they had somehow my mom and the dance instructor that owned the place, the lady they got me into this pageant was called a Cinderella pageant, or something, where it was showcased. You. Dancing, and then maybe if you won, you could get a scholarship, you know, that kind of thing. So I was like, okay, I didn’t win. But while I was there, the guy, one of the judges, he was a casting agent for ABC television, and he said, If you ever want to give acting a try, you have a really interesting look. If you want to ever give acting a try, here’s my card cut to my mom and I basically saying, What the heck. And my mom and dad were kind of separated that time, and she was feeling adventurous, so we came out to LA, knocked on Randy James’ door, and said, hi, remember me.

 

Ricki Lake  05:34

So Randy is the one who just plucked you from obscurity, and what was the process of getting the part of Kelly in 902 and oh was like bunch of callbacks?

 

Jennie Garth  05:44

Well, I went to acting, you know, when I’m when I came here, and he landed on him that I had moved to Los Angeles, and now he was responsible for me in a certain way, because I was young and wide eyed, and so he felt a lot of responsibility for me. And so I just started acting school at night, and I tried to finish high school like Traditionally, it didn’t work out for me, and I ended up getting my GED right away. And so school wasn’t an issue. So I was able to audition during the day, and my mom would take me all over, and we’d use our little Thomas guide, and Thomas, I learned the city back and forth, you know.

 

Ricki Lake  06:22

What part of town were you living in when you moved here? Like, the valley, Okay of course.

 

Jennie Garth  06:27

And I got a job right away, I believe, playing Barbara Eden’s daughter on a short run of an NBC show, which was enormous, like that was the biggest thing for me, because I, I idolized Barbara Eden like I Dream of Jeannie like my childhood.

 

Ricki Lake  06:44

Of course. And did she live up to the expectation? Did you enjoy her?

 

Jennie Garth  06:48

Oh yes, yes. I watched her like a weirdo from every angle at all times, just learning and soaking up everything I could from her because she was so loved by every member on the crew, and she was a professional, and she was pleasant, and there was no drama. I learned everything that was important and still is important to me in a job sense. And you know, on the job, from her.

 

Ricki Lake  07:14

What’d you learn from her? Like, what would you say? Like, the big takeaway as, because you’re starting your career, just like I shared with you on your podcast about John Waters and him mentoring me. Was it similar for you? Do you feel like she took you under her wing?

 

Jennie Garth  07:27

I don’t know that she knew I was under her wing, but I was definitely I knew I was under her wing. And I, like I said, I just soaked up every move she made, and I guess it stuck with me and her sense of professionalism. Never late, no drama. That was, it was she was just there, and she was a part of the team. And that’s how I learn. The way I work is the same way, you know, and I do, I credit that to her, and I also learned from her. I remember seeing her one day in the makeup trailer, getting makeup on her the backs of her hands. And I thought, why is she getting makeup on her hands? That’s so weird. I don’t why do people wear makeup on their hands around here and now, I know, I don’t know.

 

Ricki Lake  08:13

Wait, why do people put makeup on their hands because they’re aging, because they’re aging.

 

Jennie Garth  08:16

Yes, your head, you get old, and then your hands look white, or freckly or whatever.

 

Ricki Lake  08:22

I didn’t know that.

 

Jennie Garth  08:23

Yep. So she was the one that taught me to put makeup on my hands. When I you know, need to.

 

Ricki Lake  08:28

Do you need makeup on your I can’t imagine you need makeup on your hands?

 

Jennie Garth  08:32

I mean, I sometimes I work on QVC a lot, and it’s all about the hands. So I do try to take care of my hands a lot more than I ever did before. Look at my nails.

 

Ricki Lake  08:41

Oh, they’re pretty. You’re a French man. It’s a French manicure you have, but we got to go back to 902. And, oh, I want to hear it. Sorry. So how’d you? No, I brought us off topic. Forgive me. I’m like the bad talk show host. How did so you get that call for that? That show? It was just a pilot at that point, right? And this was Darren Star, right?

 

Jennie Garth  08:59

This was Darren Star. He had done something with Aaron Spelling

 

Ricki Lake  09:03

Quickly for our listeners that don’t know, Darren Star. He is a writer and a producer. He also made Sex in the City and Melrose Place, and also Emily in Paris.

 

Jennie Garth  09:12

And I was auditioning. And I had another audition for another show that was being directed by Kenny Ortega. And it was going to be a big which show, musical show, whole street high.

 

Ricki Lake  09:22

No way.

 

Jennie Garth  09:23

I think that was the original name of it.

 

Ricki Lake  09:25

Okay, my head’s gonna explode. My when I moved to LA at 19 in 1989 My first job was doing the Oscars that Kenny Ortega was directing. I was his date for the Oscars. And so he’s a good friend of mine, and he did Dirty Dancing, and I went and saw him on the set. Anyway, that’s crazy. So, okay, so you had two jobs in the running.

 

Jennie Garth  09:46

Well, yeah, I had two kind of things that I was up for, and I opted to focus on Beverly Hills, 902. I know because I was a fan of Aaron spelling’s earlier work. I knew he was, you know, Pro. Such a pro fake producer. I felt like it was a risk at that time, because it was being done for Fox, which was a network that had the Simpsons on it, and it was a network that was not available in everybody’s house across the country. Nobody even knew what Fox was at that time.

 

Ricki Lake  10:17

Was married with children on at that time?

 

Jennie Garth  10:18

I don’t know the year that they might have started the year before us or the year after us, I can’t remember, but it was just those three shows at that time, our show, The Simpsons, and then married with children. And so I knew I was taking a risk, but I thought I’ve got to try to get this show, this Aaron Spelling show.

 

Ricki Lake  10:34

And were you always auditioning for Kelly?

 

Jennie Garth  10:36

Yes, that was always your role.

 

Ricki Lake  10:38

And did it feel natural for you, like, like, doing the sides and reading the lines. Did it feel like, Oh, I’ve got this in the bag.

 

Jennie Garth  10:45

No, I had no idea what I was doing. I was so green, like, and I, I am just a Midwestern girl, like, I am not from Beverly Hills. I didn’t know people from Beverly Hills. I had no idea what I was doing. I was literally just reading the lines the way I thought I was supposed to read them, and with my own like person behind them. So there was she was the bitch from Beverly Hills with the nose job and the core the convertible and the hot guy, guy friends and everything. But she was also very vulnerable and real. There was something real about her. And I think that the you know, that character and me sort of collided, and that’s how Kelly Taylor became the Kelly Taylor that you know, lasted for 10 years.

 

Ricki Lake  11:38

We’ll be right back with Jennie Garth.

 

Ricki Lake  11:51

This show left such a huge cultural impact. I mean, it tackled tons of issues, like addiction, sexuality, family issues, so much hard stuff. Did you relate to what your character was going through?

 

Jennie Garth  12:03

No, never, the only trauma that I had had in my life at that point was my dad’s health and that, I think, when my dad did have his first heart attack, that was my first experience with any kind of loss or grief. Even though he lived through it, I lost my father that I had known my whole life, like my big, strong, manly father, he became very weak and sick and he was scared, which was just it was a completely different person.

 

Ricki Lake  12:30

That’s destabilizing, I think, for a kid.

 

Jennie Garth  12:32

Very yeah. And I think at that point was like that abandonment stuff started to come up for me, and sort of be a through line for a lot of phases of my life, but I had never had a ton of hardship other than that and leaving my sister, Cami, who was basically kind of like my mom, she raised me, you know, I slept with her my until I was 12 years old. I was very close with her, and I had to leave her in Illinois when we moved to Arizona. So I think I was a blue person from the get go, I was always like, I said I would ride my bike in the cemetery. I spent a lot of time alone. I was very happy, and I love my life, but there was that undercurrent of blue, like, huh, yeah, and just like an old soul or like a heaviness. I don’t know what it was, but I just was quiet. My dad was quiet. He was a quiet man. I’m a pretty quiet person, and I guess I just drew upon things. I don’t know where they came from, but in order to play all the traumatic, dramatic things that Kelly Taylor went through in those 10 years, they came to me naturally, like, putting myself in that character’s shoes, and feeling those feelings just came really, really naturally to me. And it was, it felt easy for me.

 

Ricki Lake  13:50

And you had to deal with like, like, Kelly, what? Went to rehab, she had addiction issues, right? She got shot.

 

Jennie Garth  13:56

Yeah, the list goes on the cult. There’s so many, yeah.

 

Ricki Lake  14:01

But, I mean, but in real life, you became very famous, like, I mean, all of you guys just sort of like, plucked from obscurity. And what was that like for you, just just suddenly being known, you know, and in everybody’s living rooms. I mean, it was like the, like, water cooler moment. Was talking about what happened on 90210, last night.

 

Jennie Garth  14:19

Oh and it was crazy. I mean, some of the other actors on the show, mainly Jason and Shannon and I in and Gabrielle, had had experience, you know, in the industry, and they’d acted before, and they had done other things. I had only had that one, maybe two things under my belt, and I was just, I felt like a fish out of water. I felt like so much self doubt, like, what am I doing here? And can I do this? And ultimately, just having to disregard those thoughts in my head and just jump into the deep end, like, no decision, just impulse, like, go.

 

Ricki Lake  14:55

Did it get comfortable for you?

 

Jennie Garth  14:57

Yeah, I got comfortable the work. I, you know, had such a great routine to it. There was such there were so many boundaries to that world that we lived in. Be here at a certain time, you eat at a certain time, you do this, this and this, and then you have a bathroom break, like everything was laid out for you all day, every day. And I love that kind of structure. And then I would go home, and I’d kind of be like, well, what do I do now? Like, you know, I didn’t know how to be on my own as much as I knew how to be a worker, a person that like a trooper, you know.

 

Ricki Lake  15:31

Interesting and wait, did you all get along like behind the scenes? Were you all friends? Yeah, or we was there.

 

Jennie Garth  15:38

There was there were we were all friends. Instantly, we were thrust together. There was no option for us to not be friends, and we all wanted to be friends like we wanted to support each other, and it felt natural to just be friends with everybody. And then as the you know, as the years went by, or as time went by, even in the first and second season, elements came into our little bubble that probably were more divisive, you know, manipulative, and it led us, I think, in certain directions and just our own individual like growth and journeys.

 

Ricki Lake  16:16

Can I ask, like, what? Give an example of what was, what would get in the way of, like, the flow.

 

Jennie Garth  16:21

Well, I mean, specifically, there was Tori Shannon and me and gab. And the three girls, Gab was kind of, you know, she was older than the rest of the cast. So the three young girls spent a lot of time together, Kelly, Donna and Brenda. And three is a rough number for young girls. You know, somebody always feels left out. Somebody, you know, it’s a tricky thing, and that happened, you know that there were, there were times where it would be difficult to be part of a three and people would feel left out, or, you know, insecure, you know, all those natural teenage feelings played out in real time on the show. As you know how we were growing as young people, right? And just learning to handle just that alone was a lot, but also to handle that instant fame, all that came with it.

 

Ricki Lake  17:10

And you also had your kids super, super young. Your first kid you had when you were 21 right?

 

Jennie Garth  17:14

Yeah, I had, I was so, so young, and I just remember that being a huge difference in me and the rest of my playmates at work, you know, like I had a I had a stop every two hours to go pump or nurse the baby, and they were smoking cigarettes in the back.

 

Ricki Lake  17:30

Yeah, wait, okay, go back. So, were you pregnant on the show? Were they hiding your pregnancy during.

 

Jennie Garth  17:34

Yeah, that was, I think, in like, season eight or nine, we hit it completely, wow. And I was afraid when I when I got pregnant, which was very unexpected. I had met my my, No, he wasn’t my husband. For four years, I met Peter, and I’ll just say that on a movie, and we fell in love, and we got pregnant right away. And that was like, you know, Record scratch with big moment of, oh, what do we do now? What do I do now? What do I want?

 

Ricki Lake  18:04

How do I how do you tell your the show, right yeah.

 

Jennie Garth  18:08

And then I had someone had just been in a lawsuit with Erin spelling. Right before that, she was pregnant and she got fired.

 

Ricki Lake  18:16

Wow, so you were terrified. You were terrified of losing your job.

 

Jennie Garth  18:20

Yeah, I thought I’m gonna, I’m gonna probably be fired. But because she went to court and she won, I was like, oh, I’m golden.

 

Ricki Lake  18:29

Yeah, good for her, good for you.

 

Jennie Garth  18:32

And I knew I wasn’t gonna get fired at that point. So they were so gracious as they, you know, had to be at that point.

 

Ricki Lake  18:38

Did Erin congratulate you?

 

Jennie Garth  18:40

Oh yeah, and I could feel like, you know, it wasn’t wholehearted, but it was the right thing to do, and so they supported it, and we hit it. And I had a baby on on base. I had a baby, went away for a month, came back to work with an infant attached to me, and I, you know, made a little dressing room for her, a little trailer where it was the baby trailer, and I would go there. Every time there was five minutes, they would know that I had, you know, snuck off to be with a baby, because I just, I wanted to be with her and nobody else at that point.

 

Ricki Lake  19:12

Yeah. I mean, that’s kind of ideal if you’re gonna be 21 and having a kid unexpectedly to have that kind of job. I also, you know, did my show, and I was, I can’t remember what season, but when I had Milo, I mean, I had a whole nursery, I had the best setup. It was ideal.

 

Jennie Garth  19:26

Yeah, I mean, that’s you had a lot of built in support, which was nice, but at the same time, it was incredibly alienating, because I wasn’t one of the carefree young kids anymore. You know, I had this next level of responsibility that nobody had any idea about.

 

Ricki Lake  19:44

Wow, and so The show ran for 10 full seasons, right? My show ran for 11, and we kind of overlapped. What was it like when it ended? Were you happy that it ended? Did you want to move on to other things, or were you devastated that this this was coming to an end?

 

Jennie Garth  19:59

No, I knew it. Coming. I knew I felt like 10 was a really good number. Everybody was like, stoked that it had gone 10 years, and we all knew it was, it was the end, and it felt okay. It didn’t feel great. It felt real scary once I drove off that lot for the last time, and I spent a lot of time, just kind of just dove into being a mom like that was my new job, full time every day, all day. I didn’t want to have a nanny. I just wanted to be a full time mommy and a homemaker. And that’s what I felt like. Because being an actress, there’s so much rejection, there’s so much competition. You know, it’s it’s everywhere you look, and it starts to seep into you and like who you are. And even though it feels very unnatural, it’s a part of it. And so when I was able to get away from that environment and go be a mom full time, I was so happy. And I just, I loved being a mom and and to this day, it’s the one thing that I feel accomplished at. It’s the one thing that I know I’m really good at it, and I love doing it with all my heart, like I’m again, just that’s my my childhood is being, you know, a home homemaker, but you know, I loved that.

 

Ricki Lake  21:23

Yeah, let’s take a quick break, and then we’ll be right back with Jennie.

 

Ricki Lake  21:39

You’re about to be an empty nester. Your youngest is 18, and I have a few years on you with that. But how’s that feeling for you, especially when you just said your greatest accomplishment is being a mom?

 

Jennie Garth  21:49

Oh my gosh, it’s gonna be huge. I mean, our first daughter left and moved to New York for school, and it was okay, because I had the other two and they were still little, and they still needed me all the time, and then the second one left, and at that point I felt like, pretty, pretty devastated. I really started to feel it then, but it I had some comfort, because she was moving in with my older daughter, and they were together. So there was that element of like, okay, at least they have each other. And then I have had my Fiona, who’s almost 18 now, at home, and we were just talking last night. You know, we love to snuggle in bed. She’s 18 years old, and I still sneak into her room and snuggle and she lays on me like a baby, like we are very attached, like all of my girls and I are weirdly attached, like, probably codependent, but we’re all okay with it.

 

Ricki Lake  22:42

Sounds really nice, like, I love that to hear how close you are with them, and the oldest is 20, so there’s a big age difference, right? 27 and your youngest is 18. So those, there’s a nine year spread with them, right, right? And they’re close with each other.

 

Jennie Garth  22:55

Yes, my my oldest two are very close with one another, because they’re closer in age. And then my youngest one does, at times, feel like she’s the odd man out. But you know the other the older two girls are such big older sisters that I’m always reminding them, like you, you guys have each other or else, like you will stay together. You will be there for each other. You are sisters. When I’m gone, I need to know that you have each other’s backs.

 

Ricki Lake  23:21

So it sounds like they know my sons live together. They live in Queens, and they, they run a restaurant together. I mean, they’re both, one’s in graduate school, the other one’s in art school, finishing and and they, they work at this Vietnamese restaurant. My my younger son is like, do you watch the bear? He’s like, the guy in the bear. He’s the sous chef. And my son, man it, my other son manages the restaurant, and it’s like, they have this hub and they play basketball together. I mean, it’s really like, I’m so glad one thing I did right is like they have each other and they’re super, super tight, and they’re four years apart, and it’s like, a beautiful thing. Yeah, do you guys watch a lot of TV? You and your girls? What do you watch? That’s equivalent to 902, I know these days, is there anything?

 

Jennie Garth  24:01

No, but there’s nothing equivalent to that. I mean, I do the podcast the nine or 21 OMG, and I watch the show back, every week, one episode a week, and I’m in like, in the middle, smack in the middle right now. And it’s amazing, because I get to appreciate the show in a way that I never did before, because I never watched it. I never knew even what other what was going on with the other characters.

 

Ricki Lake  24:23

I didn’t read that part. Just reading your book, I get it.

 

Jennie Garth  24:26

Yeah, I had no idea. And now I’m watching it from beginning to end each episode. Like, I’m like, oh my god, I’m a super fan. I love this show. I cannot wait till next week.

 

Ricki Lake  24:35

You are you don’t cringe.

 

Jennie Garth  24:36

No, I don’t cringe. I love it.

 

Ricki Lake  24:38

I cringe when I see myself. I don’t like to watch myself that.

 

Jennie Garth  24:42

Even like hair, like, you don’t hairspray.

 

Ricki Lake  24:44

Yes, hairspray, totally, hairspray. Yeah that’s like, a different thing. But I think of like, like, watch we did my let my last season of my podcast was focused on my talk show, so it was, like this retro throwback, and we look at episodes, and we’d break them down, and we bring back old people from it, and, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s both. Self, yeah? It’s like, a little cringy and a little bit like, oh, my God, I did that.

 

Jennie Garth  25:03

Right, yeah. No, I have like that. It’s been so cathartic. And also, like, I appreciate that young girl so much more than I ever did then. And I just feel so, for her on so many levels that I never really stopped to think about myself in that way.

 

Ricki Lake  25:20

What would you tell your younger self like where you are now, at 52 and you’ve, you know, you’ve got just so much great stuff happening, and you’ve just had this incredible life. What would you say looking back at that younger self of yours back then?

 

Jennie Garth  25:34

I mean, would have definitely to do with be confident in who you are and know that who you are in your core is enough, because I think I fell prey to just a myriad of insecurities growing up in this industry, and those were very damaging feelings. You know, they really get into your psyche. They affect the way you hear things. They affect the way you see things. They affect your relationships with other people. And I wish for her that she knew who she was and knew that she was enough.

 

Ricki Lake  26:15

Hmm, yeah, you think like you were, like the consummate, like ingenue, like you were the in the dictionary you look up like the ingenue That was you, and yet you still felt insecure and didn’t totally love who you were at that time.

 

Jennie Garth  26:30

It’s crazy. And I love now that I’m older, and I can see it from a different perspective. On my podcast, I love talking about things like that with with people, because we are all like that, like we have all grown so much and learned so much about ourselves, especially after 50 you, you have such a different perspective on where you were and what you’ve learned and how far you’ve come and all your accomplishments. You have this major sense of of pride in just surviving it like I’m like, damn girl, good job, you know. And I love sharing that it wasn’t easy, and it I had so many challenges, just like everybody else out there, no matter what I looked like on TV or how I appeared in magazines, it didn’t none of that was what was really going on inside of me.

 

Ricki Lake  27:21

Yeah, your podcast is called I choose me, which is such a powerful phrase, and it actually is from the show 902. I know. Can you share what that what the meaning is?

 

Jennie Garth  27:31

Well, I it all came to me after 50 is the crazy thing, and I just started to really think, because I was stuck in this place of like, what am I going to do now? I it’s, I’m not getting any jobs, I’m auditioning for things, and I’m not getting callbacks, and I don’t understand, you know, I know that I’m an actress. I know that I can deliver, and I wasn’t getting hired, and I was just really at a low point, and for a while, like years, of just feeling just like stuck and unsure and scared and knowing that I had to do something to provide for my family, I had to pay my bills, I had to continue the life that I had started with, you know, giving them the things that that I needed to give them. And so I was really scared for a while, and then like a switch, it came to me. I think it was probably through interacting with my fans. To be honest, I had started going to conventions to sign autographs for money, basically, and I enjoyed the interactions with the fans so much and just that authentic, real reciprocation of they adored me, and I was so appreciative of them. There was something magical that happened. And I would hear over and over from these women. When I was a young girl, I watched Kelly Taylor say she chose herself in that moment, and that changed everything for me.

 

Ricki Lake  28:52

Wait, go back and say so when, when would like, describe what was happening in that episode. You had to choose between the two guys, Dylan and right.

 

Jennie Garth  28:59

Yes, when there was, like a love triangle, of course, because that’s what works. And it was Brandon and Dylan, and they were fighting for Kelly, and Kelly was asked to be to choose between the two of them, and that is a no win situation, because if she choose, whoever she chose, would end her friendship with the other one, and would end their friendship with one another. So in that moment, I didn’t know at the time, you know the meaning of the significance of that line, but I my writer, Jessica Klein wrote, I choose me, and I said it. And I was like, Oh, that’s weird. I don’t know. Okay. And now, looking back all these years, that is a statement that not only do we need to hear in the 90s, we need to hear it every day, all day, from now until the end of time. It’s profound and it’s important, and it’s like such an something that we all need to be reminded of, that in any given moment we have a choice. We have a choice to choose ourselves no matter what we’re faced with, and every time that’s going to be the right choice.

 

Ricki Lake  29:59

So when having that one on one interaction with your fans and remembering that line, it came to you that needs to be the concept of this podcast.

 

Jennie Garth  30:07

It came to me that that needs to be the focal point of my my journey moving forward. I have always felt in this industry like a pawn, like a piece on the chess board game. I’ve always felt, um, not invited to the table. I didn’t see myself as having, you know, the show was overlooked. I mean, for the importance of that show in that decade, the show never really got any kind of acclaim, like critically or never really got a lot of appreciation in the industry.

 

Ricki Lake  30:46

You mean, like, awards, like, like, Emmy Awards.

 

Jennie Garth  30:48

Yeah, never really got acknowledged for the the incredible work that it did for teenagers at that time. And there were a couple like, you know, people’s choice award, whatever, things like that. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t about any of us individually. It was just about the show. So I went through the rest of my career just not really feeling attached or supported by the industry or my peers, and I didn’t like that feeling. It felt like just more rejection. And I just came to the place where I don’t I don’t need that in my life that isn’t destructive, and I don’t want to have that defining me anymore. So I thought, screw it if I don’t ever work as an actress again, I’m fine, but I’m passionate about helping other people. My parents were both educators, and I love teaching people. I love opening people’s eyes to a possibility that they never saw coming. And for me, this is like the platform that I can do so many things. I can help so many people. I can do a podcast where we talk about real issues and things that I’ve been through and lessons that I’ve learned and and the guests that I have on and share those insights with people I saw it as a platform, like sort of an umbrella, to do a lot of different things. I’m in process of starting a book. I choose me. I want to do a children’s book to spread the message to young people. I’ve been able to reach women with a fashion line that I never saw coming.

 

Ricki Lake  32:17

Yeah, tell them. It’s called me, right? I love it.

 

Jennie Garth  32:20

It’s called me by Jenny Garth, and I’m doing exclusively with QVC. And the main just meaning behind me, even doing fashion, is to provide women with a choice, provide women with an easy choice every morning to pick something that you’re going to look good in, feel good in. You’re going to be confident like, you know when you go in the closet and you’re like, oh, I don’t know what to wear today, and I gotta go to be in front of this person, or do this meeting, or go to this lunch, or whatever it is like, there’s a pressure to look a certain way. And you know, you want to feel good in the way you look. So being able to provide women with the clothes that make them feel strong and beautiful and confident in who they are gives me so much joy. I never saw it coming.

 

Ricki Lake  33:01

Wow, did you know that you were gonna do that?

 

Jennie Garth  33:05

No, I told you at 50, I had no idea what I was doing with my life, like I was terrified and I was I didn’t know how to pivot. And now doing this, I’m designing the life that I want. Moving forward, I am literally doing only the things that I want to do, and I’m calling the shots. And it’s the most incredibly freeing feeling. And I know now at this age, that I have the ability, I have what it takes, and I never probably would have thought that I could do things like this then. And for me, I have adopted the motto The sky’s the limit, like there’s nothing I’ve always known, there’s nothing I can’t do. That’s how I was raised. I know you said the same thing on my podcast. You were always taught by your grandma, there’s nothing you can’t do, and you are amazing. I was taught that, but I don’t think I ever really believed it.

 

Ricki Lake  33:57

Wow, and now you’ve just reached this this, this pinnacle of this time in your life. Yeah, and you’re doing this, this clothing line with your daughter, yes, your middle child.

 

Jennie Garth  34:06

I mean, the great things just keep on coming that it’s like, it’s like a gift. The gift from Kelly’s statement, I choose me has changed my life, and the gifts just keep on coming from it. Now I’m able to do this fashion line with my daughter when I got the opportunity, and and I got the phone call, and I thought, oh, man, this sounds like a lot of work. And I I like, you, am impulsive. And I said, Yes, without even really thinking it through and thinking about, like, what it would take. And I said to my daughter that day, who is in school for fashion, I’m going to do this. I would love to give you the opportunity to do this with me. I know you could learn so much about creating a brand from the ground up and developing fashion. I said, you don’t have to answer me right away. Just give it a minute. And she came back and she said, I want to do it, mom. And I was like, oh my god, I’m so happy. And we’ve been working. We work every day together. We make every decision together. We think the same way. And it’s such a beautiful partnership.

 

Ricki Lake  35:07

And wait, you go on QVC together and sell it together and talk about.

 

Jennie Garth  35:11

I’m still working on that. I go on QVC alone and sell okay, but she’s right off camera, literally standing there watching the whole time.

 

Ricki Lake  35:19

I think that’s like the sweet sauce is you guys together? Is she just shy?

 

Jennie Garth  35:25

Yeah, she doesn’t want to be in the limelight. You know, she sees what that’s been like for me, and I think she has such a respect for for me in enduring it and being able to do it. And she just knows that she doesn’t want to be a part of it. Not yet anyway, I’m still working on it.

 

Ricki Lake  35:40

Okay, last question, okay, what advice do you have for folks that also want to learn to put themselves first, to choose themselves?

 

Jennie Garth  35:50

I would have to say it’s never too late, like even if you have not put yourself first over the course of your years, if you’ve made mistakes, you know, and you’ve lived your life for everybody else, and you put everybody else first. And that’s natural. That’s who we are. I think as women, we’re caretakers naturally. And there comes a time when it can sound like a selfish like, oh, I choose me. But it’s not selfish at all. It’s actually vital to our survival, to take care of ourselves, to put effort into our happiness, our joy, our well being, and I love health and wellness and everything in that world, and just being able to be a part of that now and encouraging other women to take their life by the horns and make it what they want it and make it what they deserve. That I’m so fulfilled, and I think that just being able to give that message to people is so important to me. Just think about it. Just think about every day a little way you could choose yourself instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs. I mean, that’s the most, you know.

 

Ricki Lake  36:54

Simple advice, but good. Thank you. Jennie Garth, thank you so much for this time. It’s so fun to get to know you. I feel like I know you and turns out I kind of, do we do? I feel like I know you in that we are you’d say hello, right?

 

Jennie Garth  37:08

Oh yeah.

 

Ricki Lake  37:08

Kelly Taylor would say hello.

 

Jennie Garth  37:10

I mean Kelly Taylor, I don’t know, but I definitely would.

 

Ricki Lake  37:13

But Jenny Garth, yes, okay.

 

Jennie Garth  37:15

Thanks, Ricki. I loved it

 

Ricki Lake  37:17

Me too.

 

CREDITS  37:20

Wow, talking to Jennie was really so much fun. It’s like a blast from the past. It was amazing to really see how much we actually have in common, experiencing family tumult, tragedy, being so young when we started our careers, where both the marrying kind turns out and, of course, Dancing with the Stars just so many things. If you enjoyed our conversation. You can head over to Jennies’s podcast. I Choose Me to hear part one of our conversation. We put a link to that episode in the show notes. Thank you guys so much for listening. There is much more of The High Life with Lemonada Premium, subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content like rapid fire questions about dancing with the stars with Jennie herself. Subscribe now in Apple podcasts. The High Life is a production of Lemonada Mediaa. Isabella Kulkarni and Kathryn Barnes, produced our show. Our mixes by James Sparber. Executive Producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Additional Lemonada support from Rachel Neel and Steve Nelson. You can find me  @Rickilake on Instagram. Follow The High Life with Ricki Lake, wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.