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Melissa Joan Hart is celebrating a personal milestone, having shed almost 20 pounds, and she reports feeling “better than I have in a really long time.”
The 49-year-old star of Sabrina the Teenage Witch recently shared her journey through perimenopause in an interview with People, published on Monday, February 2. Initially skeptical about the possibility of losing weight during this phase, Hart found success despite her concerns.
As defined by the Mayo Clinic, “perimenopause” refers to the transitional period leading up to menopause. During this time, women may notice irregular menstrual cycles, missed ovulations, hot flashes, sleep disturbances, and variations in estrogen production.
Hart attributes her 18-pound weight loss to eliminating sugar and alcohol from her diet, even while dealing with these hormonal changes.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch debuted in September 1996 on ABC’s “TGIF” lineup, quickly becoming a popular favorite. The series, which chronicled the life of young witch Sabrina Spellman as she navigated high school alongside her magical abilities, ran for seven successful seasons, totaling 163 episodes, before concluding in April 2003.
“I actually feel stronger and better than I have in a really long time,” Hart told People.
The actress said she’s been working out “really hard” and focusing on her “longevity journey” as she prepares to turn 50 in April.
“I just wanted to feel better. It had nothing to do with losing weight,” the Clarissa Explains It All star said. “I really didn’t think I could lose weight anymore, being in midlife and perimenopause and all those things, I was like, ‘Can I really lose weight? I don’t think I can.’”
A magical love story! Melissa Joan Hart and husband Mark Wilkerson have a sweet romance that has been going strong for two decades. The Sabrina the Teenage Witch alum first crossed paths with the musician in 2002 when they attended the Kentucky Derby. From the moment they met, Hart knew she met the man she […]
“I lost about 18 pounds last year,” she explained, noting that she was “just trying to feel better.”
“And in doing that and discovering fasting and cutting sugars and cutting alcohol — I haven’t had a drink in over a year,” Hart continued. “I just don’t even enjoy drinking. So why bother? So I cut these things out of my life, and I started to feel better. And in doing that, I lost a lot of weight and kind of feel great.”
The Drive Me Crazy actress admitted that she isn’t a huge fan of water, though she’s found creative new ways to keep hydrated.
“My husband says when I drink a glass of water, I make a face like it’s the most disgusting thing on earth,” Hart said of her husband, Mark Wilkerson. (The couple share three sons: Mason, 20, Braydon, 17, and Tucker, 13.)
“He’s like, ‘You just don’t like drinking anything, even water.’ I’m, like, sipping on it, like, ‘Eww,’” she shared, adding that she keeps her thirst quenched with club soda and lime and teas.
“I’ll do hot tea, cold tea, green tea, peppermint tea, any kind of tea,” the actress said.
Hart and Wilkerson, also 49, wed in 2003 and have been going strong for 22 years.
“A big part of it is the commitment you make, right?” Hart told Us Weekly exclusively in a December 2024 interview. “If there’s a spark and there’s love in the beginning, then you can always come back to that. So trying to remember that the valleys or the lows or the times when you don’t feel that connected, you can ride that out and it makes the peaks even better.”
“People change, marriages change,” she added. “So I would just say if you made that commitment and it’s just getting stale, that’s not a reason to end [the marriage]. Work through stuff or be open, be honest. We base our marriage on trust. So I think trust is the basis of our relationship. I think that that’s a great foundation to build it on.”