What did Melissa Joan Hart do after Sabrina? Actress recalls being fired over Maxim cover

Two years earlier, Celebrity Nine ran a piece on Melissa Joan Hart that caught plenty of readers off guard. Hart, forever tied to the teen years of Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, had posted a selfie that looked nothing like the polished image fans were used to. Her hair stuck out in frizzy waves, her mascara smeared, and the whole picture left people wondering what had happened.

What they soon learned was that the look belonged to her role in Lifetime’s Would You Kill For Me? The Mary Bailey Story. Melissa Joan Hart had taken on double duty as both actor and executive producer, stepping into the role of Ella, the eldest Bailey woman. Seeing her cast as a grandmother had thrown many fans who still pictured her frozen in those Sabrina days.

By October 2025, Mashable reported that Hart had teamed up with Alicia Silverstone for A Merry Little Ex-Mas. Her name has also resurfaced in the news cycle after she disclosed that her old Maxim shoot led to her being fired from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. This revelation reignited interest in her early career.

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Melissa Joan Hart detailed how a Maxim cover put her sitcom career at risk:

A Los Angeles Times report noted that Melissa Joan Hart had nearly lost her breakout role on Sabrina the Teenage Witch over a now-infamous Maxim photo shoot. The actor said she had been sued and briefly fired after posing for the magazine while still under contract for the ’90s sitcom.

The series, which followed a teenager with magical powers living with her two aunts, had been the crown jewel of ABC’s TGIF lineup before moving to the WB and finishing its 163-episode run in 2003. Melissa Joan Hart revisited the drama surrounding the show during a conversation on the Pod Meets World podcast with Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong.

Melissa Joan Hart had appeared in her underwear for the Maxim feature and said the backlash stemmed from her Archie Comics agreement, which stated she

“would never play the character [Sabrina] naked.”

She recalled learning of the fallout during the Drive Me Crazy premiere, when her lawyer approached her at the afterparty.

“[The lawyer] goes, ‘You did a photo shoot for Maxim magazine?’” she said.

“I’m like: ‘Yes, I did.’ They’re like, ‘Well, you’re being sued and fired from your show, so don’t talk to the press, don’t do anything.’”

Her mother, who also served as her producer, called soon after, demanding an explanation.

“[She] was like, ‘What did you do?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, whatever my publicist told me to do at the photo shoot. Like I did a photo shoot for Maxim! It’s Maxim, of course you’re gonna be in your underwear,’” Hart said.

The uproar traced back to the cover line, “Sabrina, your favorite witch without a stitch,” which she said had been printed without her approval. Hart explained that she had appeared as herself to promote Drive Me Crazy, not as the Sabrina character, and argued that she had no control over what the magazine chose to write. According to her, the producers ultimately backed down because “they had no ground to stand on.”

Melissa Joan Hart, who was 23 at the time, still wrote an apology letter as the controversy dominated morning-show debates and late-night punchlines. The timing coincided with a chaotic day in her personal life, which she described as the “worst day” she had experienced then.

The podcast hosts pulled up a photo from the 1999 Drive Me Crazy premiere, prompting Hart to explain the red-eyed expression captured on the carpet.

“If you look at my eyes [in the photo], I’d been crying all evening,” she said.

She had been breaking up with her then-boyfriend, had barely connected with her family, and had “been up since 4 a.m.” doing press tied to Britney Spears’ chart-topping theme song.

“That’s why my eyes are red in that picture [from the premiere].”

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After Sabrina, Melissa Joan Hart also turned to charity:

A Nov. 29, 2025, report from SheKnows noted that Melissa Joan Hart had remained active in film and television, but her off-screen focus had shifted strongly toward humanitarian work. In the interview, Hart spoke with clear enthusiasm about her partnership with World Vision and the role her family played in the effort.

She started by saying,

“I have been working with World Vision since 2019, I wanted to sponsor three girls because I have three boys. I’ve always been seeking something like this; somewhere I can help in the world. Somewhere I can learn about other parts of the world, other walks of life, and do my best to help out. World Vision really filled that hole for me and allowed me a space to really [be a] giver I wanted to be.”

Hart explained that the partnership soon extended beyond sponsorship.

“My husband and I took our oldest son, and we went to Zambia for the first time in 2019, and we took the other kids back in 2023, while we were there the first time, we learned so much about the programs that are so complex and amazing. They step into a project area, go, and identify families and children that need help. In the example of our girls, they went and found this family, this big family, but they put three girls into the program from the family,” she shared.

Now it seems Melissa Joan Hart is far less concerned with past scandals and fully focused on the impact she hopes to leave behind.

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Melissa Joan Hart's career has evolved from teen sitcom stardom to diverse roles and humanitarian efforts, navigating controversies like the Maxim shoot while maintaining relevance through projects such as Would You Kill For Me? and A Merry Little Ex-Mas.

Her experiences highlight the challenges of early fame, including contract disputes and public scrutiny, balanced by professional recoveries and family-driven charity work with World Vision in Zambia. Today, Hart continues acting and advocating without dwelling on past headlines.