Many people absolutely fell in love with the television show, Desperate Housewives. We followed the actors on that show every week, and it seemed as if we got to know some of them on a personal level.
One of those actors was only six years old when she was playing on Desperate Housewives, and it wasn’t long before she became well-known. We are talking about Juanita Solis, and it seemed as if everything was going her way.
What many people don’t know is that she struggled when she was first on the screen. Even though people loved her character, she eventually began struggling with addiction and had problems with her relationship.
Juanita is now facing another personal battle that is something no mother should have to face. She is dealing with the loss of a child, something that quietly happened behind the scenes.
She has been vocal over the years about how difficult times were when she was on the show. This included an interview on a 2023 podcast, in which she said that she was often shamed because of her weight.
As a youngster, she would have to go through all of the social media outlets, including some websites where comments were posted, and weed out the harsh comments. This led to a serious lack of self-esteem and she ended up with substance abuse.
She said: “I mean, I didn’t go a day without smoking for, I wanna say, five or six years. So, it was a huge, huge issue for me, and I never knew just how much of a problem it was.”
There were a number of addictions that she struggled with and she called marijuana her ‘biggest obsession.’ She would always make excuses for herself and say that it could be worse, but sometimes the addiction would reach some serious levels and she even struggled to get out of bed in the morning.
Some people would compare this type of struggle with an eating disorder and she was affected with that as well since she was young. Since she was dealing with a marijuana addiction, it made her eating disorder even worse.
Sometimes, she would go days without eating because she couldn’t smoke. She called this something that was ‘very, very dangerous.’ Her substance abuse began affecting more than her health, it started to impact her relationships.
Eventually, she would commit to recovery and when she was 248 days sober, she said that her life was ‘lighter and more colorful’ than it had been in the past. She said that things are easier, and she wasn’t being stopped by her dependency.
She said: “I wasn’t panicking because I was tied down to a substance. I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, what if I can’t use this? What if I don’t have my crutch?”
Now that she is free of substance abuse, she is trying to help others who are struggling as well. She said: “I have a lot of friends who looked to me and said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go get help, because I saw that you got help, and it changed your life.'”
On September 6, she shared a post on Instagram to let everyone know that she was pregnant. She posted pictures of those that loved her the most, and she was even looking pregnant at the time.
The caption read: “Oh Ryan, how I love you. Thank you for making all of my dreams come true. ♥️ Baby Mitchell 10.24.
“I’m really excited to have new life come into our family. Family is very valued to me. I value family and friends over success any day.”
Her sister also shared the news on Instagram, saying that she was excited that her ‘baby sis is having a baby.’
Things changed on October 27 when she shared the news on Instagram that she had to have an emergency C-section. Unfortunately, her daughter, Xiomara didn’t make it.
She wrote: “[…] Ryan and I held our little girl for the first and last time.”
We know that this can’t be an easy thing to deal with. We know that she has come a long way and we hope that she is able to endure such a difficult loss.
