'Saved By The Bell' Star Lark Voorhies Opens Up About Mental Illness - And Her True Feelings On Being Snubbed From All Those Reunions!

We all remember Lisa Turtle as a ’90s style icon, a target for lovelorn losers, and a smart aleck who didn’t put up with Zack Morris’ endless nonsense.

Sadly the story of the real Lisa isn’t nearly as light and fun as what we all watched on Saved By The Bell.

Unlike her castmates, actress Lark Voorhies didn’t go on to find fame in other projects, stick with the franchise spinoffs, or do wild celeb left turns like boxing or porn. In fact, after the show ended we completely lost track of her! For a while anyway…

After a bizarre ET interview back in 2012, Lark’s mother Tricia revealed her daughter had been diagnosed as bipolar — followed by the child star coming out swinging with a really confusing denial.

Well on Tuesday the 45-year-old came clean to Dr. Oz, explaining it was her “schizoaffective thought disorder” people were seeing in the interview:

“That was a perfect example of what it does and how it behaves and what it creates around and about it.”

Tricia, who accompanied her daughter onto the show, explained the disconnect between what they said publicly:

“Lark hadn’t defined to herself what was going on, so therefore she resented the fact I came forward to put a label that she herself hadn’t accepted. She was upset with me about that.”

So that’s explained after all these years!

Luckily in the past couple years she’s gotten a lot of help with her mental health issues, thanks in part to Dr. Oz! Nice!

But of course therapy doesn’t heal ALL wounds. There’s still some very real hurt in Lark’s life, in the form of feeling “slighted” when she saw her castmates reunite again and again in recent years.

During the Dr. Oz interview, she said she now feels her former co-stars, including Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Mario Lopez, “have the right to do that and they’re happy in their element and they can have it, certainly.” However, that wasn’t how she felt at first, as she read from a journal:

“I have to admit I did feel a bit slighted and hurt when I was not invited to be part of the Saved by the Bell reunion as well as other cast members’ events, yet of course, I also realized that having this puzzling disorder may have played a major part in that factual decision. With that in mind, I am truly thankful for having had the chance to work on a show that has been so successful.”

When Dr. Oz asked what it would mean to be invited to the next one — or to be on the reported revival show. She answered honestly it would mean “100% of what it should mean”:

“I would be elated and happy and everything would blend as we are used to coming together for. I would have a lovely time, just a lovely time.”

OMG we would love that so much!

It’s great to see Lark doing better, and seeing Lisa Turtle again would mean THE WORLD to us!

Ch-ch-check out the highlights of her interview (above) and (below), then let us know in the comments if YOU would be excited to see Lark rejoin the Saved By The Bell cast!