Lauren Tewes rose to fame in 1977 as Julie McCoy, the cheerful cruise director on *The Love Boat*. Just 23 years old, she quickly became a fan favorite. But by 1984, her time on the show came to an abrupt end when she was fired during its eighth season. Behind the scenes, Tewes was battling a serious cocaine addiction. “All that money didn’t go into a bank. It went into my nose,” she later admitted.
Her addiction began in the late ’70s and left her feeling isolated and ashamed. Though she began withdrawal in 1980, it took years to fully recover. “I begged for help, but no one stepped forward,” she recalled in a 2014 interview. Eventually, she recognized the damage she was doing and quit completely.
Tewes found healing in theater, shifting her focus away from television. She also found love again with actor Robert Nadir, whom she married in 1996 after a long-distance romance. Tragedy struck again when Nadir died of ALS in 2002. Years earlier, she had also lost her premature daughter in 1987.
Though her TV career never fully rebounded, Tewes made guest appearances on shows like *Who’s the Boss?* and *Twin Peaks*, and briefly reunited with her former cast in *The Love Boat: The Next Wave*. Today, at 70, she stars in the radio comedy *Murder and the Murdochs* and works as a cheese steward in Seattle. Reflecting on her life, she said, “I made the right choices by following my heart and sticking it through.”