Actress Lindsey Shaw revealed she was fired from “Pretty Little Liars” due to drug use and her “relationship with food” on Wednesday’s episode of “Ned’s Declassified Podcast Survival Guide.”
Shaw candidly spoke about how she lost her role as Paige McCullers on the hit teen drama, telling her fellow podcast co-hosts the experience “was so bad.”
“When I had my drug problem and I was in between working on stuff, you know, I would never have to address my relationship with food because I was always like, ‘Oh, I could always just go get more Adderall.’ Do you know what I mean? ” she said. Shaw said her weight dropped significantly due to excessive drug use, and that she was ultimately fired.
“So it was really hard. … I got basically let go from ‘Pretty Little Liars’ in season five because of the weight that I had lost, and it was really an embarrassing, embarrassing thing,” Shaw said on the podcast.
“Like I didn’t look good too skinny and then, you know, then when I started to put the weight back on, I couldn’t handle it being too heavy so it kind of played into this dumb cycle,” she said.
She walked listeners through the series of events that led to her dismissal.
“I got called into the ‘Pretty Little Liars’ creator’s office,” Shaw recalled, appearing to get emotional. “And she was just like, ‘So, we’re gonna let you go.’ She’s like, ‘It’s not because of your acting, but do you have anybody to talk to?’ And I was like, ‘Um, No.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, find somebody, and we have to let you go for now.’”
The actress said the experience was made easier by the fact that they let her go “with so much care.”
“It was really sweet because they brought me back in season seven, and it was so lovely of that writing team to see that relationship and that character out, but that was rough,” she continued. (RELATED: Heather Locklear Suffering From Addiction Issues, Family Reports)
“They did me so right bringing me back for season seven and just letting me say goodbye,” Shaw said.
“I will never forget that,” she noted with appreciation.