Mary-Kate Olsen is an American actress, producer and fashion designer.
She made her career debut in 1987 alongside her twin sister Ashley in the television series Full House.
Following a high volume of public interest in the sisters' fashion choices, both worked in collaboration on a string of fashion lines available to the public.
Starting as young girls, they have a clothing line in Wal-Mart stores across America for girls ages 4–14 as well as a beauty line called "Mary-Kate and Ashley: Real fashion for real girls". In 2004, they made news by signing a pledge to allow all the workers that sew their line of clothing in Bangladesh full maternity leave.
Though her fashion choices have become somewhat popular, Olsen has been publicly criticized for wearing and promoting fur.
In 2003, Olsen started dating David Katzenberg, they broke up in 2004.
In 2005, Mary-Kate Olsen ended her romance with Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III. Mary-Kate said that the breakup was one of the main factors in her leave of absence from New York University. "I miss him and I adore him," Olsen said, "It's a hurtful and a painful subject." When asked if there was a specific reason for her leaving NYU, she replied, "I think we can all guess." The breakup and Niarchos's pairing with Paris Hilton led to a rift between Hilton and Mary-Kate. "Paris and I always only had nice things to say about each other," Olsen said. "Now I guess you can tell we're not talking."
Olsen dated Maxwell Snow, the younger brother of the late New York based artist Dash Snow, from September 2006 until the summer of 2007. In 2008 Olsen started dating Nate Lowman.
In mid-2004, Olsen announced she had entered treatment for an eating disorder, anorexia nervosa. On November 20, 2007 she was hospitalized for a reported kidney infection.
Mary-Kate was a close friend of late actor Heath Ledger around the time of his death, January 22, 2008. Responding to a claim by an anonymous law enforcement official that she would not speak to federal investigators without a promise of legal immunity, Olsen's attorney Michael C. Miller said: "We have provided the government with relevant information including facts in the chronology of events surrounding Mr. Ledger's death and the fact that Ms. Olsen does not know the source of the drugs Mr. Ledger consumed."