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Suzanne Somers was born on 16 October 1946 in San Bruno, California, USA. Growing up in the shadow of an abusive father, Frank Mahoney, a physical laborer her childhood was a difficult one. She spent her early years wetting her bed almost nightly because of the anxiety brought on by her father's drinking binges and mood swings. Once in school, the young girl battled another demon: dyslexia. When Somers began intense therapy later in her life, her doctor told her that she had the lowest self-esteem of anyone he knew. Low self-esteem may have been the reason Somers jeopardized her college music scholarship by getting pregnant. She dropped out and married her boyfriend, a fellow student named Bruce Somers, in 1965; the couple soon had a son, also named Bruce. However, Somers' affair with a former drama teacher led to divorce after just two years of marriage. To make ends meet, the single mother tried her hand at modeling in San Francisco. In 1968, Somers got a job as the prize girl on the game show, The Anniversary Game, where she met her future husband, host Alan Hamel (whom she wed in 1977). After she left the program, Somers landed a cameo role as the striking blonde in the Thunderbird in the 1973 hit film, American Graffiti. That movie appearance gave the young beauty a ticket to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and a publishing deal for her book of poetry, which Carson had been the first person to read after Somers met him by chance while waiting for an audition. After a string of failed pilots, Somers' luck changed in 1971, when she was cast as ditzy-blonde-with-a-heart-of-gold, Chrissy Snow, on the red-hot sitcom, Three's Company. Somers appeared in the series until 1981 when her contract negotiations for more money soured. She began performing one-woman shows at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, winning the city's Entertainer of the Year award in 1984. Somers is the author of the memoir of her unhappy childhood, Keeping Secrets, which was a New York Times best-seller for 21 weeks and was made into a television movie. (She followed up with After the Fall, about her adult years.) She has also worked hard to put her difficult childhood experiences to good use. She founded the Suzanne Somers Institute for the Effects of Addictions on the Family, and spoke before a U.S. Senate Committee on the subject of alcoholism's harsh effects on relatives in 1991. The dedicated activist has received the Humanitarian Award from the National Council on Alcoholism and the President's Award from the National Association of American Drug Counselors. Somers' struggles are not yet over. The blonde bombshell recently revealed that she's receiving treatment for breast cancer. After having part of her breast removed, she underwent radiation treatment and chose to skip chemotherapy and try homeopathic treatment as an alternative. As for her long-term prognosis, Somers says, "I really feel that I'm licking this." Suzanne’s other books include her self-help books, Wednesday’s Children, 365 Ways to Change Your Life and her latest, Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away as well as her “Somersize” books that have created a whole new way to eating healthy.
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