Sad Details About Hallmark's Aimeé Teegarden

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The following article includes references to mental health issues.

As the star of Hallmark films like "An Easter Bloom," "Once Upon a Christmas Miracle," and "Autumn in the City," Aimeé Teegarden has spent the last few years of her career bringing smiles to people's faces. However, that's not to say the "Friday Night Lights" alum hasn't struggled behind the scenes. Quite the contrary, she's faced a number of heartbreaking losses.  

2017 began on a heartbreaking note for the Hallmark actor. As she revealed in an emotional Instagram post, her mother passed away on the very first day of the year. Teegarden didn't share what had been the cause of her parent's death, though she did allude to mental health having been a contributing factor. Pointing to her mother's lifelong gift for turning everything into a teachable moment, Teegarden wrote, "Her last lesson was on the true cost of mental illness when left untreated and the suffering it inflicts not only on the individual but also the pain and heartache it causes the family and friends who love them." Teegarden included helpline information and urged anyone dealing with any kind of mental health issue to seek help as soon as possible. 

Several years later, Teegarden shared in another Instagram post that her mother had died as a result of previously undetected heart disease. She didn't expressly open up about whether mental illness contributed to that, but there is a known link between mental health and heart health, so it certainly is possible that that is what she'd been alluding to in her earlier post. Either way, in her 2021 follow-up post, Teegarden shared that she was selling a jacket to raise funds and awareness for heart disease. She certainly followed in her mother's footsteps by using a devastating situation to educate others. 

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

A few years after losing her mom so unexpectedly, Aimeé Teegarden's grandmother Verla Brining also passed away. Though the actor hasn't shared what led to her beloved grandmother's death, she died aged 92.

Fans of Teegarden will know that the actor was incredibly close with her late grandmother — and may even remember that the Hallmark star generally made a point of sharing snaps of her birthday lunches each year. In light of that, it was fitting that Teegarden's announcement to the world about Brining's passing came on what would have been her 93rd birthday. "I still can't believe you're not here in person to celebrate it," Teegarden wrote in a 2022 Instagram post, which featured a snap from the year prior of Brining with her birthday cake. Evidently, the celebration must have taken place a little while after Brining's actual birthday, as the cake she posed with bore the words: "Happy 92nd & a bit birthday."

Teegarden shared another birthday post in her grandmother's memory in 2023. In an Instagram carousel that featured photos of Brining in a hospital or doctor's room and with her hand over Teegarden's beloved dog Gizmo, the actor wrote, "You are missed more and more every day but your love and spirit through it all lives on in everyone's lives you touched." Brining also lives on in her granddaughter in other ways — as evidenced by a throwback pic Teegarden shared to Instagram back in 2019, she looks just like her late grandparent. Talk about a blessing!

Between her mom's sudden passing and her grandmother's death, there's no question that Aimeé Teegarden suffered a ton of loss in the span of just a few short years. Heartbreakingly, however, her grief didn't end there. Her much-adored pooch, Gizmo, also died in 2022 — and understandably, the actor was beside herself. 

Sharing the devastating news in an Instagram post, Teegarden wrote that she'd put off opening up about Gizmo's death initially because acknowledging that she was really gone simply hurt too much. Given just how big of a feature Gizmo was in Teegarden's life (yes, we're referring to the adorable birthday celebrations and their travels across the country and abroad, but also their day-to-day lives), that made sense. Even so, the actor pointed out that she still didn't feel as though she could sum it all up on social media. "I will never be able to properly articulate what Gizmo means to me and the connection we had. I was hers and she was mine and through it all we always had each other," she wrote. 

Sure enough, in addition to treating her pet like a human child, Teegarden pointed out that Gizmo had helped her through plenty of difficult experiences — particularly when it came to the losses she endured. "These last few years have been a struggle with multiple family deaths and a global pandemic but through it all she was there to keep me steady and going," Teegarden shared. Time has gone on, and Teegarden even adopted another dog named Sky in 2023. However, she's continued to share pictures of Gizmo on her Instagram, and as any pet owner who's lost a fur baby will know, her 17-year-old pup will always be in her heart. 

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In addition to the grief Aimeé Teegarden has endured over the years, she also faced something of a career setback in 2017. While the show she had a starring role in, "Notorious," was touted as the next big TV phenomenon, it wound up being canceled. 

Speaking to Nylon ahead of the "Notorious" premiere, the former "Friday Night Lights" cast member hinted at needing to be okay with it if the show didn't pan out as expected. Musing on the tough reality most actors face, she explained, "It's like your creation, your baby, and then you kind of just got to send it out into the world and know that you gave 110 percent, and if it doesn't find its market or audience, you kind of have to let that go and not let that shadow your next project." Sadly, that ended up being a necessary outlook, as before the show's first season even wrapped up, ratings plummeted and ABC cut it down by three episodes. Though that didn't initially mean the show was canceled, in May 2017, Deadline confirmed that it was officially being taken off the air. Between that and her mother's passing the very same year, it's no wonder that Teegarden summed it up thusly in an Instagram post: "2017 — you were rough and I was angry, you persisted to knock me down but I kept fighting back."

That, she did — and it's not as though Hollywood wouldn't cast Teegarden anymore. Quite the contrary, she did her first Hallmark movie in 2018, and in 2022, she signed a deal with the channel for several more. Suffice it to say, she was thrilled. Here's hoping things stay on the up and up for the actor, because she's definitely been through the wringer.