Mandy Moore is more of a household name than ever. 

She’s on one of the most popular shows on television, has just released her first new music in over a decade and is newly-married.

And yet, rewind back a few years and her life looked very different.

Moore divorced musician Ryan Adams in 2016 (she later revealed his emotional and verbal abuse – he denied these allegations); and her career had stagnated: she hadn’t released new music since 2009 and her on-screen roles were few and far between.

Now in a new interview with the New York Times, the actor and singer has said that her tumultuous decade of personal and professional upheaval was worth it because it got her to where she is now.

“I’m a firm believer in things happening for a reason, and it took the last 10 years of my life to get to this point,” Moore told the newspaper. “I really feel like it was worth it.”

Last year, Moore said she had nearly given up on acting before landing her part on This Is Us in 2016, which has earned her a Golden Globe nomination and is currently on its fourth season.

“As an actor, so much of our job is rejection,” Moore described during a panel. “I kept smacking into that wall time and time again for quite a number of years and I think it also coincided with some tricky stuff in my personal life and the combination of those two just made me feel so stuck.”

She continued, “I contemplated [quitting], I was like, ‘I think this is it. I think this is the universe giving me a sign that maybe this is not what I’m supposed to be doing… Maybe I’m not supposed to be an actor anymore like, I’ve been incredibly lucky, I’ve had this really fruitful time earlier in my life and maybe now I’m supposed to lean into something else’.”

However, upon self-reflection, she said she had realised there was “no plan B” and that it was “that period of building”. 

She explained: “It’s that period where I know I’m going to need this as fodder and fuel for when I see the light again.”

And her faith and persistence paid off. Soon after she landed what would become the biggest acting her role of her career on This Is Us, met her now-husband, Taylor Goldsmith, and was inspired to relaunch her music career.

What a difference a decade can make.

Image: Getty