With Mother’s Day right around the corner, Hallmark star Ian Harding definitely earned some brownie points with his own mom on May 6, 2025.
The “Pretty Little Liars” alum appeared in a social media video requesting that his nearly seven million Instagram followers fans participate with him in the Lupus Foundation of America’s Virtual Advocacy Day — in honor of his mom.
Harding, whose next Hallmark project is the upcoming series “Ripple,” explained, “It’s a day where we reach out to our representatives and we tell them that we want to support further research into lupus, and medical funding, as well as we want to improve access to care for those suffering from lupus — one of which is my mom.”
Ian Harding Says His Mom Has Beat the Odds, Given Just 8 Years to Live After Her Lupus Diagnosis
In the video, Harding told his fans that his mom has had lupus for 30 years, beating the odds her doctors initially gave her.
“She was originally told that she had eight years (to live) when she was diagnosed,” Harding said. “So this sort of funding and this sort of research and this sort of access to care is what has given her such a long and meaningful and high quality of life for the past 30 years.”
Lupus is an autoimmune disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic, that can cause a wide array of symptoms, most commonly including fatigue, fever, joint pain and stiffness, a butterfly-shaped facial rash, skin lesions, headaches, confusion, and shortness of breath. One of the leading causes of death for lupus patients, per Mayo, is kidney failure and it can also cause inflammation around the heart, increasing the likelihood of heart attacks.
In his video, Harding asked his fans to visit the Lupus Foundation’s website to support hundreds of advocates who are in Washington D.C., lobbying for better access to care and lupus research, by filling out an online form that can be easily emailed to their local representatives.
Many of Harding’s fans applauded his ongoing efforts around the cause, including one who wrote, “Thank you for always speaking up about Lupus ❤️ Been a supporter of yours for a decade now and you have always been vocal about important topics, love that !🖤🙏🏽”
Ian Harding’s Mom Urged Her Son to Use His Celebrity for Good
Harding’s mom, Mary, was diagnosed with lupus in 1994 at age 40, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. He was only eight at the time and didn’t understand the ramifications of his mom’s diagnosis, but she told the foundation she was worried sick she wouldn’t be around to see him and his sister Sarah grow up.
“I remember thinking, ‘I can’t be sick now,’” she told the foundation, recalling how her own mom had died of pancreatic cancer when she was just 11. “I wanted to see my kids grow up, and I wanted to be an active participant in their lives.”
Although Harding rarely remembers his mom, a cardiology nurse, being sick, he knows as an adult how much she hid from her kids and the pain she pushed through. In his 2017 memoir “Odd Birds,” he did write a chapter about her resiliency.
“She spent weeks in bed, exhausted,” he wrote of her before getting diagnosed, per People. “Moving hurt. Talking hurt. She would break out in rashes whenever she went out in the sun. And then the rash would be replaced by a fever and her joints would swell up.”
When Harding decided to become an actor and found success in Hollywood, his mom urged him to use his celebrity for good, telling the Lupus Foundation, “We instilled in our kids that at some point you have to give back, and it should be something that matters to you.”
“So often, celebrities get into causes that don’t feel authentic, some political crisis that they don’t really know about,” Harding said. “I know about lupus. I didn’t have to learn about it. I grew up with it in my life.”
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Hallmark’s Ian Harding Makes Heartfelt Plea to Fans in Honor of His Mom