The rags-to-riches story of Sydney Sweeney is now Hollywood folklore, a tale of talent, luck and sheer grit.
How, as she tells it, aged 13, she left Washington State for Los Angeles, living in a single room of a Holiday Inn motel with her parents and brother, all in the dedicated pursuit of fame.
Sydney and her mother took the bed while her younger brother and father slept on the pull-out couch.
While she struggled to make it, both her parents went bankrupt and eventually divorced. Sydney blamed herself.
Afterwards, she said, her father moved to live ‘off grid’ in Mexico without a mobile phone or internet access. There were ten years of collective penny-pinching before the blonde bombshell hit the big time.
But the Daily Mail can reveal that only some of this story is true. More fascinatingly, Sydney’s account has omitted some of the most extraordinary details of her rise from rock bottom – in particular the toll which America’s drug crisis has taken on her wider family.
The Daily Mail has discovered one of Sydney’s uncles on her mother’s side was a meth and heroin addict with a drink problem who died, aged just 52, in 2019.
Another uncle, Rob – to whom Sydney remains close – has numerous convictions for fraud, drug and theft offences and has been in and out of prison.
It’s undeniable, however, that the steely Sydney was very much the driving force behind her own success, even as a pre-teen.
Sydney Sweeney’s account of how she rose to fame has omitted some of the most extraordinary details of her rise from rock bottom – in particular the toll which America’s drug crisis has taken on her wider family
Sweeney pictured with her Euphoria cast members Barbie Ferreira and Zendaya
Sydney’s uncle, Rob – to whom she remains close – has numerous convictions for fraud, drug and theft offences and has been in and out of prison
Her parents, Steven and Lisa, were the picture of aspiration.
He worked for a medical company; she was a criminal lawyer who became the assistant attorney general for the state before giving up her career to care for her young children.
Outdoorsy, religious and strongly Republican, the Sweeneys see themselves as proud Americans.
Sydney’s maternal grandmother Sherry Haislet posted a picture of the whole clan gathered around the stars and stripes on Facebook in 2017, captioning it: ‘I stand for the flag, I kneel for the cross.’
Sydney’s brother, Trent, is a senior airman in the American Air Force and currently posted to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
Sydney was born in September 1997 and attended the private St George’s School in Washington.
Her ambitions to be an actress developed early and, aged 12, she gave her parents a Powerpoint presentation to convince them to allow her to pursue her dreams.
A year later, in 2010, she was asked to submit an ‘inspirational quote’ for her school yearbook. ‘I’m too epic to fail’ she wrote.
Sydney has spoken previously of the ‘really deep, deep streak of addiction’ that runs in her family without naming names
Star on the rise: Sweeney, pictured on the set of psychological thriller The Housemaid
By then the family had moved to LA, where Sydney attended independent school Brighton Hall in Burbank.
Here she was on the robotics team and in the maths club – in part a response to her looks.
‘I studied really hard and I did everything that people wouldn’t think I would do, to show them that my body doesn’t define who I am,’ she has said.
Sydney certainly wasn’t the only starlet at her school, which had a programme for child performers. Notable past pupils include Janet Jackson and actors Jason Bateman and Blake Lively.
One of the parents there, Woody Martin, told the Daily Mail: ‘She was just a regular kid.
If you had said to me ‘Do you think Sydney’s going to be on top of the world one day?’ I would have chosen somebody else. There were others we thought would be bigger. But what she wrote on her yearbook page – she was right on target.’
Angie Peiris, head of school, always thought she was exceptional. She told the Daily Mail: ‘She has made it big and we are very proud of Sydney.
‘She was serious about acting and her Mom was right there, guiding her. I remember she used to come to school and say ‘My Mom made me do this or rehearse this or act out this ten times at home.’
Sweeney pictured with her younger brother Trent and his girlfriend Samayre Soto
Ms Peiris agrees it wasn’t easy for the family to meet the bills, saying: ‘Financially it’s difficult to live here and put kids into private school, so Brighton Hall helped them during that period.’
This was when the family lived in the Holiday Inn by Burbank Airport, now the Burbank Hotel.
One longstanding hotel employee remembers Sydney. He told the Daily Mail: ‘She was a nice girl, very quiet. No bother. She would say hello and smile.’
The family lived in the motel for around nine months, her parents working around her needs.
But Lisa and Steven split in 2012 when she was 15, and divorced in 2015, the same year that she graduated. Court documents show the split was amicable.
The family house in Spokane, Washington, was transferred to Lisa, complete with a $470,000 (£345,000) mortgage. Sydney said in 2024 she had paid this off to thank her mother for everything she had done.
But while Sydney said in August 2023 her father lives ‘off grid’ in Mexico, he has a US mobile phone and email address listed by his employers – the Washington Restaurateurs Association.
Steve declared bankruptcy in 2016. Contrary to what Sydney has said, her mother never has.
Sweeney in her younger years with her little brother Trent
In her father’s bankruptcy filing he said he owed $187,000, mostly in bank loans and unpaid taxes.
His income was listed as $7,850 a month, and he noted he was paying Lisa $3,500 a month in child support. Fortuitously, the year after her father’s bankruptcy, Sydney booked the jobs which made her name – Netflix’s comedy series Everything Sucks, The Handmaid’s Tale and Sharp Objects, an adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel. All were broadcast in 2018.
That year she filmed the gritty teen drama Euphoria, alongside Zendaya, about addiction, trauma and relationships.
From there she has gone on to star in the films Christy and The Housemaid. It was her Euphoria role as party girl Cassie Howard that got her noticed, but the subject matter was very close to home.
The year in which Euphoria was streamed, 2019, was also the year her troubled uncle Eric Webb died.
Police and court records show he had a history of offending from 2004 to 2014, and had notched up jail sentences, including for possession of meth and heroin.
His wife Genie filed for divorce in 2004 and had full custody of their four children, with Eric only able to see them if he produced clean blood tests for two years.
A police report filed by Lisa in 2003 confirms her brother’s struggles. She reported Eric as a missing person who had left rehab, saying he had ‘made plans to harm others because of his addictions’.
At the time he living ‘as a transient’ in Spokane. When he was found by a police patrol he was taken to a mission in Seattle.
But he died in October 2019 after collapsing in a diner. Despite efforts to revive him, Eric was pronounced dead at the scene.
It was noted he had been drinking heavily for the previous month. The next of kin who was contacted with news of his death was Lisa Sweeney, Sydney’s mum.
In an interview to promote Euphoria, Sydney spoke of the ‘really deep, deep streak of addiction’ that runs in her family without naming names.
She said: ‘I come from a family of Cassies and [recovering drug addict in the show] Rues. Mostly Rues. I’ve never actually tried any drug, never drank…’
Sydney added: ‘I’m terrified I’m going to have that addiction.’
She could also have been thinking of her other maternal uncle, Rob Webb, whose drug issues have been extensive.
It’s clear from his social media he is close to Sydney – he posted a picture of them posing happily together in 2023.
One charge saw him given six months probation for an offence against his ex wife Tammy.
He also admitted violating a domestic violence protection order in 1998 after making obscene calls to her. For this he received a 30-day prison sentence concurrent with an existing prison term.
Other offences which have landed him behind bars include theft and probation violations and in 2000 he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of methamphetamine and was jailed for at least a year.
It therefore seems surprising that Sydney’s mother Lisa became involved in attempting to decriminalise cannabis.
Lisa Sweeney’s friend Jackie Subeck said they both used to throw events together, adding that Sydney’s ‘mom really believed in her, as moms do. She must have known something’.
Additional reporting: Daniel Bates and Barbara McMahon
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