{"id":52226,"date":"2026-08-17T10:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=52226"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:52:19","slug":"former-disney-star-david-henrie-says-hollywood-left-him-empty-then-a-monastery-changed-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/former-disney-star-david-henrie-says-hollywood-left-him-empty-then-a-monastery-changed-his-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Former Disney Star David Henrie Says Hollywood Left Him ‘Empty’ \u2014 Then a Monastery Changed His Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former Disney Channel star David Henrie is opening up about the spiritual turning point that led him away from Hollywood’s “worldliness” and toward a deeper relationship with God.<\/p>\n

The “Wizards of Waverly Place” star recently appeared<\/a> on Raymond Arroyo’s “Arroyo Grande” podcast, where he described feeling increasingly unfulfilled by the partying, materialism and secular culture surrounding him as a young actor.<\/p>\n

“I started changing my whole perspective on life and faith,” Henrie said. “I so craved an objective belief system. I grew up in relativistic Hollywood and, you know, a partying lifestyle, secular life, worldliness, materialism, and it left me empty.”<\/p>\n

Henrie, now a practicing Catholic, compared his pursuit of worldly pleasures to chewing a piece of gum that quickly loses its flavor.<\/p>\n

“I call it the bubblegum theory of pleasure,” he explained. “Every time you eat a piece of bubble gum, it loses its flavor. In a few moments, you pop another one in. At the end of the day, you’ve gone through the whole pack, and now you just feel worse than you did when you started.”<\/p>\n

“That was me before I met Kevin,” he added.<\/p>\n

Henrie was referring to actor and comedian Kevin James, whose friendship played a pivotal role in his spiritual journey. As Henrie began searching for something deeper, James invited him to visit St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California, in 2012 and encouraged him to make a general confession, a Catholic practice involving a review and confession of sins from a significant period of one’s life.<\/p>\n

Henrie admitted he initially didn’t even know what a general confession was. After learning about the practice, however, he took the invitation seriously.<\/p>\n

“I wrote a whole chapter book to bring to the priest there,” he recalled.<\/p>\n

The experience proved transformative. Henrie said he left feeling “so relieved” after he visited the abbey.<\/p>\n

“It was the monastery that changed my life,” he said.<\/p>\n

More than a decade later, Henrie’s Catholic faith continues to influence both his personal life and his creative work.<\/p>\n

The actor has connected that first monastery experience to his documentary series “Seeking Beauty,” which explores the deeper meaning behind art, architecture, food, music and culture. Rather than treating beauty simply as something visually appealing, the series examines how it can point people toward deeper truths and ultimately toward God.<\/p>\n

The first season, which takes viewers through Italy, debuted on EWTN+ in January. A second season, this time centered on Spain, is currently in development.<\/p>\n

Henrie’s career has taken him far from his Disney Channel days, but his latest project reflects a spiritual journey that began when success and pleasure were no longer enough.<\/p>\n

What he was searching for, Henrie says, wasn’t another taste of what Hollywood could offer. It was something lasting \u2014 and he found it after stepping inside a monastery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Disney Channel star David Henrie is opening up about the spiritual turning point that led him away from Hollywood’s “worldliness” and toward a deeper relationship with God. The “Wizards of Waverly Place” star recently appeared on Raymond Arroyo’s “Arroyo Grande” podcast, where he described feeling increasingly unfulfilled by the partying, materialism and secular culture…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":52229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Disney Star David Henrie Says Hollywood Left Him 'Empty' \u2014 Then a Monastery Changed His Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Disney star David Henrie reveals how Hollywood left him "empty" and how a monastery visit transformed his life and faith.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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