Brett Butler is now seeking help from her fans after admitting that she’s broke and six months behind on her rent.

The actress starred in the hit ‘90s sitcom Grace Under Fire from 1992 to 1998. The show was in the top 10 for two seasons and she earned $250,000 per episode. She even earned a Golden Globe nomination for the show. 

The End of Grace Under Fire

Grace Under Fire was based on her own life and struggles with alcohol and abuse. She starred as a single mother, raising her three kids as a single parent after divorcing her abusive husband.

Butler struggled with substance abuse while starring on the show. 

The Chuck Lorre created show was canceled halfway into its fifth season after Butler was asked to leave the set because of her drug use. 

Her addiction started when she was prescribed Vicodin to combat her sciatica. But the pressure of being on TV led her to be addicted to painkillers. Towards the end of her run on the series, she was so intoxicated that she only remembers about 80 of the 112 episodes she filmed. 

However, after the show was canceled, she got sober. But she soon ran out of money because of horrible financial decisions and trusting the wrong people with her money problems. The pandemic also contributed to her poor financial state.

In a new tell-all interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress opened up about her life in the years since the end of her show.

Butler’s Struggles 

Brett Butler (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

As the daughter of an alcoholic, abusive father, Butler had already overcome alcoholism and an abusive marriage when she was discovered during her stand-up performance in New York during the mid-1980s. 

Soon enough, she starred in Grace Under Fire and became one of the highest-paid TV actresses, but her drug-fueled rampage led to the show’s demise. She started looking for gigs after that, but it was difficult. A lot of projects which were in talks never came to fruition. 

She had also been counting on revenue from a Grace Under Fire DVD deal she thought would amount to $1 million, but the deal never transpired. 

After that, she left Hollywood for Georgia, where she bought a rustic property she’d seen on the internet, but that too ended badly. She could not keep up with the mortgage payments and eventually lost the farm. 

Brett Butler On The Red Carpet At The 1994 Emmys (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Butler returned to L.A. and has since made frequent TV show appearances, some of which were high profile, but it only earned a little over a guild minimum. Even her 2012 gig on Charlie Sheen’s sitcom Anger Management only covered her basic living expenses. 

And to make matters worse, in 2019, she suffered from the worse case of depression. It led her to have suicidal thoughts. This then coincided with COVID, which made her situation dire. 

On the verge of being evicted from her Los Angeles apartment, she confided in her friend about her situation, who then set up a GoFundMe account for her, which has raised over $20,000. 

And while the actress may not be doing great, she noted she is not giving up yet and might make a comeback soon.