Christy Carlson Romano has publicly accused former boyfriend Shawn Ashmore of ghosting her because his team decided she lacked sufficient fame.
Romano, 42, made the claim Wednesday in an Instagram post that quickly drew attention from fans of the Disney-era stars. The “Even Stevens” actress revealed she and Ashmore, 45, had dated during the summer they filmed the 2002 Disney Channel movie “Cadet Kelly” and continued their relationship for several months afterward.
“Shawn and I dated for the summer we filmed ‘Cadet Kelly’ and for a few months after,” she wrote on Instagram. “I was eventually ghosted and had heard ‘his team’ thought I wasn’t famous enough for us to keep dating. Hollywood is brutal for a young girl.”
The actress was 18 at the time of the relationship. She has framed the revelation as part of her broader mission to expose the realities of growing up in the entertainment industry, a theme she plans to expand upon in her forthcoming memoir.
Romano concluded the same Instagram post by stating she wrote her upcoming book, “Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Rise and Fall of a Child Star,” to “expose everything that actually happens in this business.” The memoir is scheduled for release on October 6.
The ghosting allegation represents just one of several difficult experiences Romano has shared publicly about her time as a young performer. In an October 2023 appearance on the “Vulnerable” podcast, she disclosed that she received breast implants as a teenager due to body image struggles that intensified after filming “Cadet Kelly.”
“At the time obviously, I was coming of age in Hollywood … and my mom and me looked at footage or some s–t,” she recalled on the podcast, referring to her mother and former manager, Sharon Romano. “She was like, ‘Christy, if you want to get breast implants, I just want to let you know that’s an option.'”
Romano defended her mother in the same interview, noting she was “from a whole different generation” and adding, “I love my mom. … She was stage mom-ing that moment.”
Financial hardship has also featured prominently in Romano’s public account of her post-Disney life. In a 2021 YouTube video, she revealed she had lost the millions she earned as a child actress through spending on “big ticket items” and poor financial guidance.
“My biggest thing about child actors, you aren’t told that the work is going to slow down,” she said in the video. “In fact, I was told the opposite, specifically by my mom, some of my team, even my money manager at the time.” She clarified that she is “not a millionaire in any way, shape or form.”
Romano has also been candid about her complicated feelings toward “Even Stevens” co-star Shia LaBeouf, whose career trajectory diverged sharply from hers after the show ended. In a 2021 YouTube video, she described experiencing what she termed “sibling rivalry” toward the actor, who went on to star in major films including “Holes” and “Transformers.”
“I felt a little jilted from the whole situation,” she shared. “I was like, ‘Here he is. Making a big ol’ splash in Hollywood and here I am, I chose to go to college and there’s consequences that come to that,’ but there was definitely an undercurrent of regret … [and] comparison,” She added, “Sibling rivalry, if you will.”
The actress has promised to examine her relationship with LaBeouf more deeply in her memoir. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, she shared a throwback photograph showing her with LaBeouf and his father, Jeffrey LaBeouf, captioning it with reflections on their parallel childhood struggles.
“Shia and I spent 3 years of our lives right next to each other in adjoining trailers, both of us enduring painful childhoods,” she wrote. “If only we could have been there for each other, but we were each going through our own battles and could barely take care of ourselves.”
She continued in the same post, noting that she’s “finally sharing everything” in her memoir. “It might anger some people, but I don’t care anymore. If my story can help just one person, it will have been worth it.”
Fans rallied behind Romano in the comments section of her Wednesday post about Ashmore, with one writing, “If it makes you feel any better, I remember you and not him, at all 🤷🏻♀️.” Another remarked, “I just like that 20 years later here you are and where’s Shawn? 👀” while a third offered, “I’m So sorry 😢. Hollywood can be great or it can be harsh unfortunately.”
The “Cadet Kelly” production brought together two young performers at different points in their careers. Ashmore had already established himself through the “X-Men” film franchise as Iceman, while Romano was transitioning from her Disney Channel series “Even Stevens” into other projects. The television movie, which followed a free-spirited teenager sent to military school, became a staple of the channel’s early 2000s programming.
Romano’s memoir “Once Upon a Trainwreck: The Rise and Fall of a Child Star” is set for release on October 6.