Molly Ringwald says one person made Secret Life of the American Teenager the ‘worst’ experience of her career

EntertainmentMovie
6 Aug 2026 • 5:03 AM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

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Molly Ringwald says one person made Secret Life of the American Teenager the ‘worst’ experience of her career

Molly Ringwald does not look back fondly at her time on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

During her appearance Tuesday on Watch What Happens Live, the iconic actor was asked to rank her past TV and film projects based on her experience working on them.

When asked about the ABC Family drama series, Ringwald clarified the ranking system with host Andy Cohen, asking, “The worst is one?” Okay, that was it. The worst.”

Cohen and the live studio audience gasped at Ringwald’s assessment of The Secret Life, on which she played the mother of Shailene Woodley’s character from 2008 to 2012.

However, Ringwald explained that the problem was not with her co-stars, who included Woodley, Francia Raisa, Daren Kagasoff, India Eisley, Ken Baumann, Megan Park, Greg Finley and Steve Schirripa.

Molly Ringwald said she loved her cast members on 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' (Getty)

“It was hard, I mean, okay, I love the cast,” she said. “I love Shailene. There’s so many people that I worked with that… There was one person that was really difficult. And I’m not going to say who that one person is, [but] they brought it down to a one.”

The Breakfast Club actor appeared in all five seasons of The Secret Life, joining the fifth and final season as a special guest star. The show was created by Brenda Hampton, the creator of 7th Heaven, who also wrote a majority of the episodes of the show.

In the series, Woodley played a teenager named Amy who unexpectedly becomes pregnant while still in high school and has to navigate relationships between her family and friends in the aftermath.

After Ringwald ranked the series lowly, she went on to reminisce about her other projects, labeling Pretty in Pink as a highlight of her career in the process.

“That was pretty great,” she told Cohen. “I’ll give that a ten.”

She continued: “It was written for me. [Director John Hughes] wrote the movie for me and, you know, I actually have a collage that I made myself that’s in the bedroom.

“Except for the prom dress, I loved all of my costumes,” she added.

Ringwald also opened up to Cohen about the one project she regrets turning down: Demi Moore’s role in 1990 hit Ghost.

Ghost — starring Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg — won three Oscars at the 1991 Academy Awards and brought in a massive $505.7 million at the box office upon its release.

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