In her hit 2024 movie “The Idea of You,” Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway plays a 40-year-old woman who, after a painful divorce, redefines societal norms by finding love with a man who is half her age and happens to be in a boy band. While the Prime Video film contained all the ingredients to be a success, this movie was more than just a fun rom-com romp for Hathaway, who also produced the film. Like the character she plays in the film, the actor is known for her big brown eyes and megawatt smile, and she has weathered many controversial moments and gotten more than her fair share of public criticism throughout her career. At one point, the public’s perception of her was so toxic that it spawned a hashtag to perpetuate the vitriol. That alone would be enough for some people to retreat into a corner, but for Hathaway, it was just one in a string of tragic life events that she has had to deal with both in and out of the public eye.

In an interview with The New York Times, Hathaway describes herself as a “former people pleaser from New Jersey” and a “formerly chronically stressed young woman” — emphasis in both cases on “formerly.” An intensely private person, she works hard to avoid becoming hardened by the personal and professional struggles she’s experienced. Indeed, she has not let them define her. As she told Vanity Fair, “Humiliation is such a rough thing to go through.” She added, “The key is to not let it close you down.”

Anxiety and low self-esteem were a young Anne Hathaway’s constant companions

A New Jersey native, Anne Hathaway had a relatively normal upbringing. One of three 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 to Kate McCauley and Gerald Hathaway, she was raised in a home where creativity was celebrated. Inspired by her mother, who once worked as a stage performer and coincidentally toured with a local production of “Les Miserables,” Hathaway was bitten by the acting bug at an early age.

“She’d come and see me in things and concentrate with the most rapt attention you can imagine,” her mother told a reporter, as Vanity Fair reported. Anne herself told GQ, “I would walk around singing all day, doing scenes, pretending all day long. My two brothers loved that. My parents never said, ‘Pipe down!’ or, ‘Quit that racket!’”

With so much support and love, you’d think Anne would have been a happy-go-lucky 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥. On the contrary, she described her young self as “intense” when speaking with Vanity Fair. In an interview on “Popcorn With Peter Travers,” she told the show’s host that it was hard for her to get close to people. “I disliked myself so intensely,” she continued. “It was just a mindset. I didn’t know how to love myself. I didn’t know how to love anybody.” The actor, who also revealed that she struggled with anxiety from a young age, said that her insecurities almost made her give up acting because she doubted her abilities. She told W, “I feel like I have to apologize for myself in front of most people.”

As a young actor, she was subjected to Hollywood’s misogynistic tactics

Kissing attractive people all day as part of your job description may not sound like such a bad thing — that is, unless you are a young woman who is forced to make out with multiple men in one day to see if any of them ignite a spark. That’s exactly what happened to Anne Hathaway, who, afraid of being viewed as problematic, agreed to what she described to V Magazine as a “gross” chemistry test. “I was told, ‘We have ten guys coming today, and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited,” she said.

Today, Hathaway realizes that there was nothing wrong with her, but there was something wrong with the process, which she says was pretty standard procedure in her early acting years. “It was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry. Which is the worst way to do it,” she said.

As both a star and the producer of “The Idea of You,” Hathaway found a better way to audition the men vying for the part of the male lead. She asked them to choose a song they thought the main characters would enjoy dancing to. Nicholas Galitzine chose a song by The Alabama Shakes, danced with Hathaway, and landed the role — no awkward make-out session required.

Her relationship with alcohol became problematic

For many young people, the college years are a time of experimentation, and alcohol often factors heavily into the equation. Although she already had a hit movie under her belt, Anne Hathaway’s college years were no exception. In her interview on “Popcorn With Peter Travers,” she admitted, “I went to college and I drank a great deal,” adding that, “By the time of ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ I was drinking more.” The habit continued for many years, with Hathaway often imbibing to the point of horrific hangovers that sometimes lasted for several days. However, as Hathaway revealed on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” after one hard-partying night with Matthew McConaughey and his wife, Camilla Alves, in 2019, Hathaway decided to put down the bottle — at least until her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren were grown.

In an interview with Modern Luxury, the “Serenity” star said, “I didn’t put [a drink] down because my drinking was a problem; I put it down because the way I drink leads me to have hangovers and those were the problem” (via ET). She was quick to point out that the decision did not come from a moral high horse or place of judgment, but rather because she just knew it wasn’t right for her anymore. As she told Vanity Fair, “It’s a path everybody has to walk for themselves,” adding, “My personal experience with it is that everything is better. For me, it was wallowing fuel. And I don’t like to wallow.”

In 2008, Anne Hathaway found herself mixed up in a fraud scandal
Before marrying Adam Shulman, Anne Hathaway was in what seemed to be a fairytale romance with Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri. But, as we all know, not all fairytales end with a “happily ever after.” In 2008, Follieri was arrested for fraud, and Hathaway, who had reportedly broken up with her beau of four years just days earlier, was not singing “Stand By Your Man.” In fact, some doubters accused “The Princess Diaries” star of cooperating with the feds to have Follieri arrested. Even former President Donald Trump weighed in. “She hasn’t remained very loyal to him, has she?” Trump told “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush (via Today). “So when he had plenty of money, she liked him, but then after that, not as good, right?”

For her part, Hathaway claimed no knowledge of her boyfriend’s illegal activities, telling W, “It’s a situation where the rug was pulled out from under me all of a sudden,” she says. But, as a self-described “optimistic fatalist,” she wasn’t surprised. “I assume bad things will happen, but I’m hopeful that maybe they won’t,” she explained. Her decision to cut off all communication with Follieri following his arrest was seen by him as a business move. Following his release from prison, he told Daily Mail, “She decided saving her career was most important,” although he insisted that he harbors no ill will.

Co-hosting the 2011 Oscars made her a punchline

Hosting the Oscars is not a job for the faint of heart. Many have crashed and burned over the years, but perhaps none as spectacularly as the unlikely pairing of Anne Hathaway and James Franco, whose apparent lack of chemistry at the 83rd annual Academy Awards in 2011 made for cringe-worthy television. David Wild, a writer on the show, described it perfectly to The Ringer: “It was like the world’s most uncomfortable blind date between the cool rocker stoner kid and the adorable theater camp cheerleader,.” Interestingly, Hathaway originally declined the offer to host, but after some persuasion from Franco, she gave in. “When all the dust settled, I was just like, ‘You gotta be kidding me. Your first instinct is usually the right one.’ And all the reasons why I turned it down came true,” she told People.

Those behind the scenes told The Ringer that Hathaway was the consummate professional, always prepared and ready to roll, while Franco was the more challenging of the pair. Regardless, the entire performance was raked over the coals by critics. Tim Goodman, then-chief television critic of The Hollywood Reporter, wrote, “In what could go down as one of the worst Oscar telecasts in history, a bad and risky idea — letting two actors host — played out in spectacularly unwatchable fashion on the biggest of all nights for the film world.”

A 2013 Golden Globe high began an all-time low
Over the years, Anne Hathaway has proven that she has depth and range as an actor, bouncing from a fashion assistant in “The Devil Wears Prada” to the iconic Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises.” But it was her 2012 performance as the prostitute Fantine in Les Misérables that garnered Hathaway numerous awards and accolades. But what should have been the high point of her career almost ended it. From the moment she accepted her 2013 Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress with a “blog” heard around the world, things started to go south. It didn’t help matters that when the movie won Best Musical or Comedy later that evening, Hathaway joined the rest of the cast onstage and stole the thunder by finishing her earlier acceptance speech. Talk about “bling.”