“What I liked was the attention I got”: Christy Carlson Romano recounts how she felt trying cocaine for the first time

The Cadet Kelly actress-turned-podcaster Christy Carlson Romano, who, in an August 2026 Elle essay, addressed Hayden Panettiere's unfortunate death and talked about how child actors face difficulties navigating the entertainment industry, opened up about partying in clubs and trying cocaine for the first time.

According to Us Weekly, Christy Carlson Romano, 42, who is married to film producer Brendan Rooney, with whom she shares two daughters, appeared on the latest episode of Amanda Hirsch's Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, where she, in a candid conversation, shared how she went out partying and binge drinking when she was young.

On the September 29, 2026 episode of the podcast, Romano also discussed when she tried cocaine for the very first time. Romano said:

"I was a binge drinking, solve your problems by partying and going out and having fun [kind of person]."

During their conversation, when Hirsch asked Christy Carlson Romano about her first-time experience trying cocaine, the Disney actress said:

"I was old to start trying cocaine. I was like 23."

Romano, the author of the upcoming book Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Fall and Rise of a Child Star, mentioned trying cocaine in her memoir. While speaking with Hirsch during her podcast, she reportedly claimed that she did not like it much.

However, while talking to Hirsch, Romano shared how trying cocaine in front of people was primarily to get the attention of the people in the room. Romano explained it was just a way to look cool in front of other people. The Mirrors 2 actress said:

"I think what I liked was the attention I got for doing it in front of people. You feel cool doing it in the moment, in the room with people. Everybody is like, 'I got the Disney girl to do cocaine for the first time.'"

Romano went ahead and shared how she visited clubs and partied just so that she could be noticed. She said:

"I didn’t care [if people found out]. First of all, I had been clubbing for a while just trying to get noticed and it never happened. Before Instagram, you really didn’t have control over your image."

As Romano talked about how she was hell-bent on trying to shape what people thought of her, she said the following:

"At that time, I had been clubbing since I was 16. But I’ve been really aggressively clubbing to try to get noticed since I was 21."

Christy Carlson Romano further added:

"It was so that I could be seen with the right people or going to the right places. But the irony is that I didn’t have a publicist or a stylist or anybody really guiding me. I don’t know why that thought never occurred to me to team up with people."

Christy Carlson Romano embarrassed herself in front of Lindsay Lohan

During the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, while speaking with Amanda Hirsch, Christy Carlson Romano also shared a story about how back in the day she once met The Parent Trap actress Lindsay Lohan at a New York City club and embarrassed herself in front of her trying to befriend Lohan, who was at the time beefing with actress Hilary Duff. According to Entertainment Weekly, Romano said:

"Oh my god, I was such an idiot. I said something about Hilary Duff. And then she was like, 'Well, you should hear what she said about you.' And I didn’t say anything at all. It was like, 'I guess we’re not going to be friends.'"

As cited by Us Weekly, while Romano's interaction with Lohan did not turn out how she expected it to be, according to her, she did learn a lesson from it. Christy Carlson Romano told Hirsch the following regarding her interaction with Lindsay Lohan:

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"I’ll kick myself because it’s an embarrassing story but we all have things. And that’s what I hope makes the book relatable, where it’s, 'Foot in mouth. You were dumb and now you’ve learned from that.'"

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