Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen started in the industry at just 9 months old, becoming child stars with Full House. The world watched them grow up, and today the iconic twins are celebrating their 36th birthday. See the business women grow up through the photos below, and read about their impressive life and career.
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Mary-Kate and Ashley were born on June 13, 1986, to parents Jarnette Olsen and David Olsen. Ashley is technically the oldest, by 2 minutes. Believe it or not, they’re fraternal twins and not identical.
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At the age of six months, the twins were cast in the role of Michelle Tanner on the ABC sitcom Full House. They began filming at nine months old.
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They took turns playing Michelle in Full House for 8 seasons. By the age of 6, they became the youngest producers in Hollywood history creating Dualstar Entertainment in 1993.
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Dualstar would go on to produce the twins‘ subsequent films and videos, including 1993’s Double, Double, Toil and Trouble and 1994’s How the West Was Fun. A series of musical mystery videos called The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley premiered in 1994 and continued through 1997.
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During the late 1990s and early 2000s, their names extended from movies and videos to clothes, shoes, purses, hats, books, CDs and cassette tapes, fragrances, and more. By the time they were 10, they were millionaires.
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They decided to leave Hollywood and moved to New York when they were 18 to study at New York University. Ashley told i-D, “We were 18 years old and I think what we did know was that we wanted t take that time to take a break from what we were previously doing and to explore things that interested us, and explore what life has to offer.”
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They explored their creative aspirations and launched The Row, in 2006 which is celebrating a decade and a half of business.
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The wrote their biography “Mary-Kate and Ashley: Our Story” in 2001 when they were 13 years old. They later released their book “Influence” in 2008.
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After years of headlines, paparazzi, and little privacy, the twins live a discreet life and are strategic about everything they do. In Mary-Kate’s words, they are “discreet people – that’s how we were raised.”
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The twins have never really been apart and love working together. Ashley told i-D, “We like working together and we like having that dialogue. I think it helps harden your ideas to be able to hear them out loud, to speak something through.”
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According to Celebrity Net worth, they have a combined net worth of $500 million.
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When it comes to their personal life, Mary-Kate was married to Olivier Sarkozy in 2015 but requested an emergency divorce in May 2020, a couple of months into the coronavirus pandemic. Their divorce was settled in January 2021, per Elle.
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Ashley started quietly dating her long-time friend, 32-year-old artist, Louis Eisner in 2017. They have been together since.




