"Mrs. Doubtfire" Star Lisa Jakub Reveals How Robin Williams Helped Her Through Depression and the Story She Told Has Fans in Tears

Jun 02, 2026 by apost team

Thirty-three years after "Mrs. Doubtfire" made her a household name, Lisa Jakub stood at a reunion event in Los Angeles on May 29, 2026, alongside her on-screen siblings Matthew Lawrence and Mara Wilson — and spoke about the co-star who shaped her life in ways that had nothing to do with the film.

Jakub, born March 27, 1978, played Lydia Hillard — the eldest of the three Hillard children — in the 1993 comedy directed by Chris Columbus. She was 15 when the film was made, already dealing with anxiety and depression, and had been asked to leave her school because they were not equipped to handle her schedule while she worked on set. She did not know who to talk to — or whether she even could.

Robin Williams gave her somewhere to start. "He talked to me because obviously I was honest with him and he and I talked a lot about my issues with anxiety and depression, and he shared a lot about his struggles in life too," Jakub said at the reunion event. "And it was really the first time that someone was so completely open and teaching me to not feel ashamed of these things — and that there was help that I could get and I didn't have to feel like a messed up weirdo because of what I was struggling with."

Williams, who died by suicide on Aug. 11, 2014, at the age of 63, had spent his own life navigating depression and addiction. He rarely spoke about it publicly at the height of his fame — but on that film set, in conversation with a teenager who needed to hear it, he did not hesitate.

What Jakub shared at the reunion was only part of the story.

The kindness Jakub remembered was not limited to those conversations. When her school told her not to come back during the production of "Mrs. Doubtfire," Williams wrote a letter to her principal asking them to reconsider. "Robin was the kind of person that if he saw that any one of us was upset or not okay, he would check on us," she said. "He asked me what was wrong. I explained what had happened and he wrote a letter to my principal, which I still have. It was an incredibly kind, lovely letter saying, 'Lisa is just trying to pursue her career and get her education at the same time, so can you please support her in that?'"

The principal did not ultimately readmit her. "He did not ask me to come back and finish school, so it didn't work," Jakub said — but she was quick to reframe the moment. "The story is not about the fact that it didn't work. It's a story about how kind Robin was."

The reunion event brought together three of the film's child cast members: Jakub, Lawrence, and Wilson. It was, by the accounts of those who attended, a warm and candid evening — shaped as much by gratitude for what Williams gave them off screen as by the film they had made together.

Jakub has not been a working actress for many years. She has built a life as a writer, yoga teacher, and the founder of Mission Flexible — a nonprofit she created two years ago to support veterans dealing with anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. She has connected that work, in part, to Williams — who, she later learned, had quietly ensured that local veterans were hired as background actors and crew on his productions.

For a woman who found her footing partly because of his honesty, the letter — kept all these years — says everything about the kind of person Robin Williams chose to be when nobody was watching.

apost.com

Did you grow up watching "Mrs. Doubtfire"? Do you think Robin Williams' openness about mental health was ahead of its time? Let us know in the comments and pass this on to your family, friends, and other Robin Williams fans out there!