The Untold Truth Of Lucy Hale

Lucy Hale has been working in Hollywood since she was a teenager, and her star has only continued to rise as the years have worn on. Hale began her career on reality television when she was a young teen but catapulted to worldwide fame after she was cast in the hit Freeform show "Pretty Little Liars" in 2010. Since "PLL" ended, Hale has headlined multiple other series, including "Life Sentence" and "Katy Keene," and appeared in the AMC miniseries "Ragdoll." She has also established herself on the big screen, with roles in films big –- such as "Scream 4" –- and small, like "Dude" and "The Hating Game."

Her IMDb lists even more upcoming projects, so acting appears to be Hale's current focus, but she has also had a secondary career in music. She released a solo record in 2014 and has been featured on many soundtrack albums, including "A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song" and "We Love Disney." Hale is also a social media darling, with a massive following on Instagram (24.5 million followers and counting) and a sizeable one on Twitter, where she rarely posts. Though she keeps a much lower profile than some of her celebrity peers, Hale has led a fascinating life, as you'll soon see.

Lucy Hale was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, but realized early that she could not fulfill all of her dreams there (per W magazine). At age 15 –- after the breakup of American Juniors –- she and her mom relocated from the South to the West Coast, landing in Los Angeles with hopes of superstardom. "The transition was a major one," she once told College Magazine. "In L.A., everyone is super career-driven and Memphis is much more laid back and family oriented. Everyone hangs out and goes to church on Sundays, but L.A. is totally different." Nonetheless, Hale told Elle, "L.A. will always be my home. I've always felt like the black sheep of my family, and I feel like this is more where I belong."

Because Hale was involved in the arts, she never went to a traditional high school, which made moving easier. "I never went to or never stepped foot in a real high school," she said in an interview with Glamour. "I sacrificed a lot of like what you call, 'normal growing up,' whatever that is because I did grow up very fast, I started working at 16, supporting myself at 17, lived on my own at 18. Everything was just kind of quick." Not long after arriving in Los Angeles, Hale began booking acting gigs, including small parts on shows like "The OC" and "Drake & Josh," as well as a main role on the short-lived show "Bionic Woman."

After getting her professional start with "American Juniors," Lucy Hale's musical career appeared to fizzle out as quickly as it began. The kids' group only released one studio album (it was self-titled), though the show itself also released a soundtrack album featuring all 10 finalists, called "Kids in America." Given how her acting career took off in the years following, Hale could easily have abandoned her musical goals. Instead, she used her rising star to score a record deal with Hollywood Records, which resulted in her 2014 album "Road Between." Though she has had songs on soundtrack albums, this remains Hale's only solo album to date.

"Road Between" was a country album, drawing upon Hale's Southern roots and her deep love of the genre. She has said that she listened almost exclusively to country music and Disney as a child, and that she idolized Martina McBride as a youngster. The album actually allowed her to meet her idol, though it did not go as planned. "First of all, we're the same height — 5-foot-2 — which is very cool," Hale told USA Today. "But I don't think I said a word to her, because I didn't know what to say." Hale has not released any singles since 2014, but she recorded music as recently as 2020, when she was featured on two soundtracks, both stemming from her television show "Katy Keene."

"Pretty Little Liars" began in 2010 and went off the air in 2017, when Lucy Hale was 28. She has described the period directly following the show's end as a tough time for her, both in terms of the pressure to maintain her success as well as the challenge of figuring out who she is when she is not working. In a 2021 interview with People, she spoke of that time period in a frank and honest way. "The show changed our lives overnight. We were so young, so busy and overworked. But you're up on this mountain, and you're like, 'Everything is so great! People love us!'" she said in the interview. "When you step outside of that, you're like, 'That's not normal.' After the show ended, it was a dark time in my life."

Hale took some time to find herself after "Pretty Little Liars" wrapped, though she did jump back onto TV screens in 2018. Still, that post-"PLL" period was fraught, and Hale had to think about how she could live a public life without succumbing to all of the pressures she felt. "It's been really fun, but [taxing] to find an identity outside of my public persona. For a while, that's who I thought I was," she said in an interview with Haute Living. "I thought I had to live up to certain expectations, of who people expected me to be. It was miserable trying to keep up with that and keep up a perfect image."

A lot of very successful people are creatures of habit. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg wears the same outfit, more or less, every day, and Twitter's Jack Dorsey starts off each day with meditation and an ice bath (per Daily Mail). But it's not just tech masterminds who swear by routine -– many actors also love consistency. Take Julianne Moore, who used to keep a morning routine that strictly enforced leaving her home at a designated time and taking a specific route to ensure she remained fortunate. Lucy Hale is another celebrity who thrives on a consistent morning routine, though she seems to be more lax about it than Dorsey or Moore. Still, given that she has discussed it in multiple interviews, it clearly plays a large role in her life.

"No matter where I'm at in the world, or what time I have to be up for work, I always wake up an hour early because I have to start my morning off slow," Hale told Awkwafina in a conversation published in Interview. "I have to make my coffee and do my journaling and just sit there, otherwise my whole day is thrown off." In an interview with Byrdie, Hale expanded upon her explanation by clarifying that her journal was one focused on gratitude, which she said sets a positive tone for her day. She also told Byrdie that she often hikes in the morning hours. And she told People that watching the sunrise with her dogs has become habitual.

Lucy Hale has two dogs, and both of them have pop culture-infused names. Her dog, Elvis, is named after the famed singer, and Hale got him when he was just a puppy. "I'm from Memphis originally, and my grandmother idolized Elvis Presley, and I love Elvis Presley as well, so that's where his name came from," she explained to Byrdie. Hale got a second dog -– a rescue, this time -– during the pandemic (per Byrdie). That one is named Ethel, after Lucy's best friend on "I Love Lucy."

Per Marie Claire, both dogs are maltipoos -– maltese and toy poodle mixes -– but they don't exactly click as well as one would expect. In her interview with Byrdie, Hale noted that her dogs did not get along when Ethel first joined their pack. "I had this vision in my head of them being best friends. That's not exactly how it worked out," she explained. "They're just now at the point where they're cuddling, and they'll play every once in a while. But for a solid year, Elvis was like, 'Okay, mom, when is she going home?'" Hale is so into her dogs that she also said she tries to travel with them whenever she can.

Since she began acting, Lucy Hale has amassed more than 40 credits, and she has done a lot of different things – from horror flicks to romantic comedies and back again. But like many actors, she has a wish list of things she hopes to tackle in the future. Much of her hopes have to do with continuing to explore new territory as an actor. "I actually creatively need to do things that challenge me, or it's just not fun for me. I'm at the point now where I'm willing to take risks. I'm willing to fail, if I need to, to just get excited," she told Collider in 2021.

In particular, Hale has said that a movie musical – which would combine her two loves, acting and singing – tops her wish list, but her dreams do not end there (per Interview Magazine). "I'd love to do an epic love story à la The Notebook. I would love to do a period piece, anything '70s or before," she admitted to Awkwafina in the piece. "Those are things where I can have fun, but I do love the darker genres." In 2014, Hale confessed that she bombed her audition for "50 Shades of Grey," which would have taken her outside of her comfort zone in an incredibly sexually charged role. "Mainly, I was just interested in doing something risky and doing something a little different than my character on 'PLL' so it took me out of my comfort zone," she told MTV.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Lucy Hale is currently worth $6 million. The bulk of her money has most likely come from her television work, which has included 160 episodes of "Pretty Little Liars," 18 episodes of "Privileged," 13 episodes of "Life Sentence," and 13 episodes of "Katy Keene." Hale has also appeared in a number of movies, with "Scream 4" and "Truth or Dare" being the largest and best-grossing (per The Numbers). Hale's music career likely also contributed to her net worth, though she has produced only one solo record thus far.

In addition to music and acting, Hale has made considerable money from endorsement deals over the years. She has been a brand ambassador for everything from Avon (per PR Newswire) to Mark Cosmetics (per Teen Vogue). She also modeled for multiple Bongo campaigns back in the early days of "Pretty Little Liars," per Teen Vogue. All of her endeavors have allowed Hale to live very comfortably, as evidenced by her gorgeous Studio City house. According to the Los Angeles Times, the actor paid $2.95 million for the house back in 2019. Her previous home –- also in Studio City –- was sold for $2.45 million that same year (per Observer).