Amanda Bynes has been popping up recently on social media looking pretty good, and now her lawyer is speaking out to deny a mental-health rumour reported during her struggles last year.
“For the record, Amanda does not have schizophrenia, nor has she ever been diagnosed with it,” the actress-turned-fashion student’s lawyer told People on Wednesday.
Bynes was hospitalised on a 72-hour psychiatric hold last summer after setting a small fire in the driveway of a Thousand Oaks home, then stayed in treatment for months afterward. That and her erratic behaviour in the months before that incident had launched a tonne of speculation about what ailed her.
She’s been silent about her diagnosis to this point, attorney Tamar Arminak told the magazine, because she thought it was best to keep her mental-health diagnosis private. Now, however, she wanted him to “dispel some rumours.”
The She’s the Man star has also been marijuana-free for nine months, he said, noting she had no history of alcohol or hard-drug abuse. His client is on “zero medication,” he said.
Bynes continues to live with her parents in LA and is attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Irvine. Her mother’s conservatorship over her affairs is in place at least through September.
Last Saturday on Twitter, Bynes posted shots of herself on “spring break,” showing her wearing a bikini, smiling and appearing healthy — a far cry from her bizarre online activity of last year — and thanked fans for their birthday wishes.
She turned 28 on Thursday.