The Stunning Transformation Of Candace Cameron Bure

She's been famous for most of her life, but child star Candace Cameron Bure understands that her most impactful project was likely one of her earliest. "No matter what my greatest accomplishments are in life, I will probably always be remembered for 'Full House,'" she told News.com.au. But she doesn't mind. "That's great, it means that the show meant something to millions of people and that's an amazing legacy to be a part of," she added.

It's probably true; many people will always remember her as the spunky, yet level-headed D.J. Tanner, one of the kids on the hit ABC sitcom who wasn't an Olsen twin. Still, Bure has gone on to do many other things in the entertainment industry, from hosting a talk show, to writing books, to producing her own films ... and even attracting her fair share of controversy. She's had to transform along the way, rolling with the punches and finding new ways to share her message with the world ... even if it's a message at odds with the progressive nature of the industry she's found herself in.

Candace Cameron Bure was born in Los Angeles in 1976. When she was still in grade school, her brother Kirk Cameron became a household name thanks to the hit series "Growing Pains." Kirk's acting career officially kicked off when he nabbed a cereal commercial at the age of 9; Bure followed in his footsteps shortly after, landing ad spots and small sitcom roles throughout the early '80s.

Yes, one of those small sitcom roles just so happened to be a guest spot on "Growing Pains." Working alongside her big brother was a memorable and formative experience for the budding young star. "I remember watching the process, how a sitcom works, and with all the writers, and the rehearsals, and then the run-throughs, and the big laughs at the jokes ... And you guys all got along great, and had such a good time," she told her brother in a 2019 interview for "Today." 

While show business has had a negative impact on many family dynamics, that apparently wasn't the case for the Camerons. "It made it interesting for my sisters, but I think my parents did a really great job because no matter where we traveled, no matter what job we got, my parents made sure that it was a family affair," Bure told Yahoo! Entertainment in 2021. "So it never got awkward in our family, it never was uncomfortable ... It just became about family."

After having appeared in a number of guest spots on various shows like "Punky Brewster" and "Who's The Boss?," Candace Cameron Bure won one of the most important roles of her career. On the ABC sitcom "Full House," she played D.J. Tanner, and the show would launch her to stardom. Creator Jeff Franklin later told Variety that he was impressed by her audition for the part. "She was just so natural," he said. "There was nothing forced or artificial about her. She was just completely a real kid, really cute and funny. She was kind of like an everyday kid that I thought young kids watching the show would really relate to." Regardless of how good her audition was, Franklin admitted being impressed by her entertainment industry connections. "It didn't hurt that her last name was Cameron and she was Kirk Cameron's little sister — that was kind of a bonus," he said, insisting that she would've gotten the role anyway.

It seems that Bure mostly enjoyed her time on the show,but it wasn't always easy. In a 2009 interview with Seventeen about her teenage years on television, she looked back unfavorably on the reaction she got from kids her age. "I tried to maintain my friendships and some normalcy while doing a show," she said. "I would try to go to school, but some years I did nothing because it was very difficult and the kids were really cruel."

Right around the time Candace Cameron Bure began acting on "Full House," she experienced another life-changing event. "When I was growing up, my family wasn't Christian. We didn't talk about God and I didn't know anything about him," she later wrote on her official website. That all changed when a family friend invited the Camerons to attend a church service, and she decided to commit. "I asked Jesus into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior," Bure recalled. "I was baptized along with some of my family at a later service. I was extremely excited about what I thought was my new Christian life."

Soon, Hollywood stardom got in the way. Bure remembered how difficult it was to keep up with her newfound faith, given all of the other things going on in her life. "I was on a hit TV show, was making lots of money and had a loving and supportive family," she wrote. "I also had a lot of fans that admired and looked up to me and I was considered a good role model. I traveled all over the world meeting people, fans, and other celebrities. I couldn't complain about anything!"

Her religion would fall by the wayside for a while, but everything changed (again) when she read "Left Behind." As her brother Kirk Cameron starred in the 2000 film adaptation, Bure chose to recommit herself to religion. "Boy, did I have it all wrong," she reflected.

"Full House" would ultimately come to an end in 1995, but by that point, Candace Cameron Bure had already set the stage for the next major transformation in her life. In 1994, according to photos she posted to Instagram, she attended a hockey game alongside "Full House" co-stars Lori Loughlin, Dave Coulier, and Bob Saget. That night, she met Russian hockey player Valeri Bure, and she was smitten.  

Candace went into more detail on her official website, describing the way they quickly fell in love with one another. "I thought he was cute, and apparently he thought the same — so I asked for a signed jersey, we exchanged numbers that night and the rest is history!" she wrote.

The two married in 1996, when Candace was 20 years old. Twenty-five years later, she celebrated their anniversary on Instagram, ruminating on all of the things that have made their marriage work. After listing off suggestions like grace, sex, laughter, and communication, Candace concluded, "No marriage is picture perfect. Not one. And certainly not ours. But through thick and thin, ups and downs, God has blessed us tremendously with guidance and perseverance. I believe God is the secret sauce."

The rest of the 1990s and much of the 2000s were relatively quiet for Candace Cameron Bure, as she focused on starting a family with her new husband. In a 2002 interview on VH1, Bure showed the cameras around her home and introduced her three children, insisting that she now has quite a different life than when she was one of the biggest sitcom stars in the world. "The business is so fake," she said. "Such a, kind of, phony industry, so I think you can either go in that direction or it can really ground you."

Instead of following the typical child star path, which often leads somewhere tragic, Bure has embraced a more traditional road. She has spoken many times over the years about how much motherhood changed her outlook on life, including describing her parenting style to L.A. Parent. "Being a mom is my biggest priority," she insisted. "I hope my kids would say that I'm a loving mom. They would also describe me as strict. We set firm boundaries, but there is always love and grace."

In 2014, Candace Cameron Bure competed on "Dancing With The Stars," telling Us Weekly that her husband had just won a similar show in Canada. Bure's turn, she said, was up next. "I absolutely love dancing. I have no dance experience whatsoever, but from being a kid to today, if there's a wedding or a party, I'm the first girl on the dance floor, and I'm the last one off," she said. In a promotional video released ahead of the season (via Us Weekly), Bure warned her "Dancing With The Stars" partner Mark Ballas that she wouldn't be throwing away her faith in order to compete on the show. "I'm not gonna be your sexy girl," she said. "I'm a mom of three kids so I want to look good and feel beautiful, but I will probably stay on the more modest end of costuming."

Bure wound up doing decently well according to Ballas, who blogged for SheKnows throughout the season. "She improves every single week and the judges' comments get better and better," he wrote. They made it to the finale, but ultimately came in third.

The "Full House" alum enjoyed her time on the show so much that she turned the experience into a book called "Dancing Through Life." She told Time, "Each week really was filled with these huge life lessons, which I didn't think I could learn at the age that I'm at."

After spending time away from stardom, focusing on her family, Candace Cameron Bure re-emerged as a frequent star of films made by Hallmark. She starred in a number of Christmas movies for the network, including films like 2008's "Moonlight & Mistletoe," "The Heart of Christmas," and "Christmas Under Wraps." Bure enjoyed the fact that these movies were something her entire family could watch together, telling an outlet called Christ And Pop Culture, "Many scripts get passed my way, but all of the projects that I choose to do are family-friendly, which is important to me both as a mom and as a Christian. ... I'm not looking to do only faith-based projects, but family-friendly is very important to me."

In 2015, Bure further cemented her Hallmark stardom when she began starring as Aurora Teagarden in a series of mysteries from the writer behind "True Blood." The films aired on Hallmark's other channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and were slightly more serious than her holiday films... but only slightly. Bure explained to News.com.au, "I love the character of Aurora Teagarden, she's unlike any other character I've played before. She's a really bright woman and she's always two steps ahead of everyone else."

Beginning in 2015, Candace Cameron Bure added a new item to her extensive resume: talk show host. That year, she joined the panel on "The View," discussing the issues of the day with fellow stars like Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg. Bure occupied the traditional conservative seat, which she told Time was a point of pride. "It's just a different medium for me to actually be myself and to express some of my opinions and viewpoints," she said. "I don't know that there's a lot of conservative actors out there willing to be so open about that, so I think it's a unique opportunity for me."

Her time on the show coincided with the rise of Donald Trump as a political force to be reckoned with, which meant that Bure found herself speaking on behalf of a conservative movement under increasing scrutiny. As a result, it sounds like she was ultimately not happy with her time on "The View." Reflecting on that difficult season, she admitted on a 2021 episode of the "Behind the Table" podcast that it was hard to have everyone asking her to defend her viewpoints. "I have PTSD, like, I can feel it," she said. "It was so difficult, and to manage that emotional stress was very, very hard." She added, "I knew I was the only one at the table that had my opinion, [and] I would just get sick to my stomach."

The entertainment landscape changed significantly in the 2010s, as streaming services like Netflix began to outpace the traditional networks that had defined Candace Cameron Bure's early stardom. In 2016, Netflix resurrected "Full House" as a new show called "Fuller House," gathering much of the Tanner family once more in their iconic San Francisco home and following their stories for a new generation. Bure reprised her role as D.J. Tanner on the Netflix reboot, and it sounds like seeing everyone again was a great experience. "It feels like we never, ever left," she told Time. "Truly, we're all having the time of our lives."

The new show lasted until 2020, and Bure was devastated when it was canceled. She told Insider that she'd had a hand in shaping D.J.'s storylines, making sure she ended up in a marriage to a man the audience would've rooted for her to have married. "I am just so proud that we were one of the very first shows to come back as a reboot and how successful it was," she concluded, "and that's all thanks to the fans."

Candace Cameron Bure's time on "Fuller House" turned out to have some far-reaching consequences that the "A Shoe Addict's Christmas" star could never have anticipated. Case in point: it earned her the wrath of fellow former child star JoJo Siwa.

The "Dance Moms" star made a TikTok in 2022 about the rudest celebrity she'd ever met. After Siwa revealed that Bure topped her list of unfriendly famous faces, the "Fuller House" star then addressed the drama in an Instagram Reel. Bure stated that they'd had a phone call to talk it out, and she shared her version of their interaction. She said that Siwa, who was only 11 at the time, asked Bure for a photo at the "Fuller House" premiere. Bure turned her down. Looking back on this moment, Bure regretted the way she acted toward Siwa. "I broke your 11-year-old heart," she said in the post. "I feel crummy." Still, she took the opportunity to scold Siwa for having kicked off the feud on social media. "Even a 10-second trending TikTok video can do damage because our words matter and our actions matter," Bure said.

For her part, Siwa spoke with Page Six about the fallout. "I will say because I had a bad experience, that doesn't mean that she is an awful human," the "Karma" singer said. It would be mere months before the two went head-to-head once more. 

In 2022, Candace Cameron Bure — once touted by Hallmark as "The Queen of Christmas" — revealed that she was leaving the network. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bure said she didn't like that Hallmark was now creating content that didn't align with her conservative beliefs. "It basically is a completely different network than when I started," she said, blaming leadership for the fact that the network had started to make holiday movies featuring gay couples.

Instead, Bure jumped ship to a new network called Great American Family, where she would be developing her own movies. "I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment," she said. "I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core."

Bure's move didn't go over well. "Bigot," actor Hilarie Burton wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I don't remember Jesus liking hypocrites like Candy. But sure. Make your money, honey. You ride that prejudice wave all the way to the bank." (Burton also left Hallmark, but it was because the network wasn't diverse enough.) Even Bure's old foe JoJo Siwa criticized the move in a since-deleted Instagram post, which was co-signed by Bure's former co-star Jodie Sweetin. In response to the backlash, Bure told the "Unapologetic" podcast, "Cancel culture is real and it is difficult."

2024 saw Candace Cameron Bure finally return to the table at "The View," years after talking about what a terrible time she had when she was a co-host on the show. This time, though, Bure was there to discuss "Quiet On Set," a revealing docuseries that detailed years of abuse in the children's entertainment industry. That's a world that Bure knew well, once upon a time, so she appeared on "The View" to talk about how the docuseries made her reconsider her own early time in the spotlight.

"It absolutely tore me apart," Bure said of the series' subject matter. "It broke my heart, and it's so tragic. It's horrific and disgusting." She also insisted that the shocking revelations in the docuseries bore no resemblance to her own time on the "Full House" set all those years ago. "I didn't have that experience," she said. "I know the other girls from our show didn't have that experience. And there's lots of child actors that don't have that experience ... It's just more awareness, that we can protect the next generation from that happening." Bure also commended Drake Bell for coming forward with his story.