{"id":46325,"date":"2025-09-05T13:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=46325"},"modified":"2025-09-05T13:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:12:16","slug":"growing-pains-star-jeremy-miller-reveals-kirk-cameron-and-alan-thicke-saved-him-from-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/09\/growing-pains-star-jeremy-miller-reveals-kirk-cameron-and-alan-thicke-saved-him-from-homelessness.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Growing Pains&#8217; Star Jeremy Miller Reveals Kirk Cameron and Alan Thicke Saved Him From Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_46328\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46328\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/09\/Jeremy-Miller_credit-Left-Eugene-Powers-Shutterstock-Right-DFree-Shutterstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46328\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/09\/Jeremy-Miller_credit-Left-Eugene-Powers-Shutterstock-Right-DFree-Shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-46328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Eugene Powers \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: DFree \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jeremy Miller, best known as Ben Seaver on the hit 1980s sitcom &#8220;Growing Pains,&#8221; is opening up about how his TV family stepped in when life off-camera got tough. The 48-year-old actor recently shared that his co-stars Kirk Cameron and the late Alan Thicke were there for him during one of the darkest chapters of his life.<\/p>\n<p>Miller admitted he was \u201creally struggling\u201d after the 2008 economic crash when his catering business collapsed. \u201cI mean, really struggling on the brink of homelessness,\u201d he revealed in a Youngstown Studio interview. That\u2019s when his on-screen dad and brother came to the rescue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThings got really bad, and Alan and Kirk were the only two who stepped up to help me,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAlan set up interviews with all of his restaurateur friends in Santa Barbara and a few other places and got me connected to different places where I could utilize my chef skills and earn some money to help take care of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All it took was one phone call. \u201cAll I had to say was, \u2018Hey, Al, I\u2019m really struggling. Do you know anybody who might\u2014\u2019 and that\u2019s all I had to say,\u201d Miller recalled. \u201cHe was on the phone for the next two days, making connections and doing everything he could to try and help me. That was just the kind of guy he was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thicke, who played Dr. Jason Seaver, passed away in 2016 at the age of 69. For Miller, his death was a heartbreaking loss. \u201cHe was just one of the most amazing men,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was always so full of life, which is why his sudden death was such a shock.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, all of us, we really thought he was going to be the next Dick Clark, you know? 102 and still going. Because he was so full of life and so full of energy,\u201d Miller added. \u201cHe was just such a kind, generous, and amazing man. And him and I would talk probably once a month, once every two months. He would call just to check up on me, make sure everything\u2019s going good. But he really did fill that father role. He was my other dad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like many child stars, Miller\u2019s life wasn\u2019t without challenges. He admitted he battled alcohol addiction for years before entering recovery. \u201cI\u2019ve been totally sober for over seven years now,\u201d he shared, though he recalled a darker season when he was \u201ca mean drunk\u201d who was \u201cblacking out every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also confessed that his drinking once led to a DUI. \u201cSome financial difficulties arose, I had a pretty big fight with my fianc\u00e9e and I bolted the house and \u2026 I stopped at the liquor store. It\u2019s the only DUI I ever got, and believe me, I deserved many more, and I don\u2019t say that lightly,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the thing I\u2019m most ashamed of in my drinking career, is how many times I put other peoples\u2019 lives at risk by getting behind the wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Looking back, he\u2019s grateful he was pulled over that night. \u201cI pounded a half pint of vodka, probably would have drank a lot more, and I got pulled over for a DUI, and from that point on, I got back into working on my recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Growing Pains,&#8221; which ran for seven seasons from 1985 to 1992, was a family sitcom loved by millions. For Miller, it wasn\u2019t just a job\u2014it gave him a family for life. Thanks to the generosity of Cameron and the late Thicke, he was able to weather one of the hardest storms of his life.<\/p>\n<p>Their kindness reminds us all of the power of stepping in when someone is struggling. As Proverbs 17:17 says, \u201cA friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremy Miller, best known as Ben Seaver on the hit 1980s sitcom &#8220;Growing Pains,&#8221; is opening up about how his TV family stepped in when life off-camera got tough. The 48-year-old actor recently shared that his co-stars Kirk Cameron and the late Alan Thicke were there for him during one of the darkest chapters of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":46328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Growing Pains&#039; Star Jeremy Miller Reveals Kirk Cameron and Alan Thicke Saved Him From Homelessness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u2018Growing Pains\u2019 star Jeremy Miller reveals how Kirk Cameron and Alan Thicke helped him during addiction battles and near homelessness.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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