The Untold Truth Of Pretty Little Liars

Most fans probably know that Pretty Little Liars is based on the Sara Shepard book series of the same name, but there's more to its history than that.

Alloy Entertainment, a book-packaging and television production subset of Warner Bros. Television, came up with the idea to create a series that would serve as a sort of "teen Desperate Housewives"-slash-"murder mystery with a soap" series. Alloy then chose Shepard, a ghostwriter at the time, to pen the novels with the hopes that the story would become must-see TV.

Actress Ashley Benson (Hanna) was the person who suggested the Pierces' pitch-perfect "Secret" for the show's intro. Benson played the track for some of her co-stars, and they agreed it was a must for the episode opener. They took it to creator I. Marlene King, who also loved it. King told The Hollywood Reporter, "People think that song was written for our show—it's so perfect."

Before they were besties on-screen, Benson and Hale became pals through MySpace. Hale tweeted that they've known each other since they were 15 after they "creepily met on MySpace (don't ask)," to which Benson replied, "what were we thinking???" Guess they're taking that backstory to the grave.

The Liars may be great at burying their dirt (with the bodies) on screen, but in real life, they've been a little less discreet.

For starters, two male members of the cast landed in hot water legally. Actor Brandon Jones (Andrew) was arrested in March 2016 for alleged assault with a deadly weapon, and Parker Bagley (the original Jason) pleaded guilty in 2013 of stealing $7,000 worth of jewelry and electronics from the home of an acquaintance.

Other cast snafus have been a little less intentional. For instance, in 2015, Benson drew ire from the Instagram crowd after she posted a sponsored picture of herself wearing a lion costume, dubbing it a "Cecil the Lion" look. Given the real Cecil's death by poaching, Benson attracted a ton of backlash and quickly apologized, promising that any proceeds from her deal with the company would go to an animal conservation fund.

Troian Bellisario also found herself facing the social snap-back after criticizing Taylor Swift for being a "false" feminist.

The show itself has been the source of some bad blood. There has been much debate over concerns about the (perhaps illegal) age gap and teacher-student impropriety pertaining to the on-screen relationship between Aria and Mr. Fitz. Controversy also brewed over some allegedly extreme photo-shopping in a cast magazine spread. Perhaps the biggest flub occurred when the show introduced its first transgender character as the sociopathic stalker who'd been tormenting the girls—that trope was controversial enough on its own, but then the show's official Twitter page shared a seemingly transphobic tweet by captioning a picture: "He. She. It. Charlotte."

Although Spencer often seemed like the most well-adjusted member of the Liars, her real-life counterpart was suffering. In a gripping Lenny Letter, Bellisario revealed that she suffered from crippling mental health woes, including a difficult battle with an eating disorder.

She wrote, "There is a part of my brain that defies logic. Once, it completely convinced me I should live off 300 calories a day, and at some point, it told me even that was too much. That part of my brain is my disease, and there was a time when it had absolute authority over me... It almost killed me, and you can see that even though I have lived in recovery for ten years now, it still finds loads of fun, insidious ways to thwart me to this day."

Despite her personal battle with body image, Bellisario defended GQ after it was accused of Photoshopping the cast in its magazine spread. Via Instagram, she said that "looking very blown out and perfected was obviously what [GQ was] looking for. Great. Cool. As long as we acknowledge how it was achieved so we know it's not real." The actress added, "This industry seems to invest more in perfection than in flaw. But flaw and individuality, to me, are what make a human being interesting, they make our stories worth telling. (Unfortunately the flaws don't usually sell products or magazines)"

Of all the ladies, Hale seemed to be subject to the most scrutiny in the gossip arena. She was often the one cited as the odd woman out among the actresses, who were often depicted together in group photos—some of which Hale was noticeably absent.

Though Hale and her co-stars have seized opportunities to disprove the feud rumors, she admitted their dynamics weren't always perfect. "We all sort of have our different friendships, and we keep in touch in different ways," she said.

Regardless, the ladies connections were forever solidified when the actresses all got matching tattoos on their "'shh' fingers."

The final days of any show are difficult, especially when some cast members wrap before the others, but for Pretty Little Liars, the team came back together one last time for a collective farewell among the cast, crew, and creatives.

As King wrote in The Hollywood Reporter, "One by one, we said goodbye to our cast as they were 'series wrapped.' But then something amazing happened. They came back. On the last day of filming, actors, department heads, executives, directors and our entire office staff came to the set. Video village grew from a handful of people to a hundred. Late into the night, I called 'cut' for the last time on Pretty Little Liars. I'll never forget the cadence of our first A.D. announcing, 'Ladies and gentlemen, that's a series wrap on Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Sasha Pieterse, Troian Bellisario...and Pretty Little Liars.'"

That's a gulp-tastic moment if we've ever heard one.