Peter Gallagher is “grateful” that Mischa Barton is “still alive”

Peter Gallagher is “grateful” that Mischa Barton “is still alive”.

The 69-year-old actor spoke about Barton, who was his co-star on “The OC,” Revealing the level of fame he was dealing with at a young age “can kill you.”

Barton, now 38, was just 16 when she was cast as Marissa Cooper in Josh Schwartz’s early 2000s teen drama that launched her to A-list status overnight. Years later, the Hollywood it-girl entered a public downward spiral, which included a 2007 DUI arrest and be hospitalized in a 5,150 involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations in 2009.

“I’ve always felt very protective of her,” Gallagher, who played Sandy Cohen on the hit show, said of Barton in an interview with the independent published on October 27. “The first fame is toxic. “The first fame can kill you.”

The “A Bad Moms Christmas” actor went on to explain, “She was 16 when she started working with us, so the fact that she’s still alive makes me feel very grateful.”

The Post has contacted Barton’s representative for comment.

The star has opened up about her struggles in the past. She once compared her 2009 “breakdown” to Angelina Jolie’s character in the 1999 film, “Girl, Interrupted.”

“It was a total collapse. It was terrifying. Straight out of Girl, Interrupted”, Barton he told the people in a 2013 cover story titled “My Hollywood Nightmare.”

However, he clarified: “I never had suicidal tendencies. “I was just overworked and depressed.”

Barton revealed that he was “under enormous pressure” during that time and fell into the lifestyle.

“We thought, ‘Work hard, play hard,’” he told the outlet, adding, “But one slip in a tense moment and you find yourself in that situation.”

Barton said that “nothing could prepare [my parents] “get your kids to jump into the overtly sexualized and crazy world of Los Angeles.”

Comparing it to “a train I couldn’t get off,” he explained: “When you’re young, you can do it, but after a while, it catches up with you. “I needed to be alone and recover.”

Barton shared that this meant trying to “stay balanced,” adding, “I needed to take this time for myself… I’ve learned a lot. “Now I am stronger and I am excited for what is to come.”

However, having the right headspace didn’t stop trolls from attacking her with comments about her weight.

“We always said, ‘She’s too thin, she must be sick,’” Barton recalled. “Then it was, ‘She’s too big.’ “I was never the right weight.”

Last year, the actress admitted that she was “totally prepared for that level of fame.”

“You can go to therapy every day for the rest of your life,” Barton said. Sunday weather in October 2023. “But there is a certain amount of trauma [from] “Everything I went through, especially when I was in my early 20s, doesn’t go away overnight.”