Whatever Happened To Janice And Jessica From The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody

You may remember that Disney Channel's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody," which aired from 2005-2008, added a pair of female twins in Season 2 to complement Dylan and Cole Sprouse's titular characters. Like "Sweet Valley High"'s Tiffany and Brittany Daniel and "Full House"'s Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen before them, this pair of young blonde twins made an instant impression — and they had British accents to boot. 

The actresses' names were Camilla ("Milly") and Rebecca ("Becky") Rosso — and Becky is older by less than a minute, she told Portrait Magazine. Camilla played Janice, while Rebecca was Jessica (er, we think). But after that 2010 "Suite Life on Deck" episode, they weren't seen on-screen anymore. So what exactly happened to them? Why did these young women, who were musicians as well as actors, suddenly disappear from public life? It's unclear exactly why they decided to leave the entertainment industry, but there are some things we do know about their all-too-short show-business career. 

According to an interview the young women did with Fanpop, the two were pulled out of an audience when they went to a taping of "The Suite Life," and the executive producer asked if they'd audition. "Getting discovered was a dream come true. It was amazing, we didn't think stuff like that happened in real life, just in films. That was very cool and very surreal as well," Milly told the publication. And Becky, when asked about their interest in show business, said, "We always really wanted to be actresses and singers and dancers, but our mom said that it was a hard business to get into." She noted that they'd always acted, danced, and sang with their other sisters, but didn't have enough money to start their careers. "But once we were discovered in the audience, by chance, we decided to get into acting and we love it!" she said.

After a few months of acting lessons, they first appeared in the episode "Twins at the Tipton," in which a twin convention comes to create havoc at the Tipton Hotel where the boys live. They showed up six more times in that series, learning to ballroom dance, joining the school cheerleading team, and generally being romantic interests for Zack and Cody. Janice and Jessica even came back in a second-season episode of the follow-up series, "Suite Life on Deck." Their characters, Janice and Jessica, had been hired as models and were doing their first shoot on board the U.S.S. Tipton.

Initially, the actresses appeared to be going places. After their recurring role on "The Suite Life" ended, they starred in the straight-to-DVD "Legally Blonde" franchise spinoff "Legally Blondes" that also aired on ABC Family and the Disney Channel. The Reese-Witherspoon-produced film seemed like a good vehicle from which to launch their future stardom. They didn't even have to audition for the roles: MGM saw them in "The Suite Life" and wanted to do a project with them, as Becky Rosso told media in a conference call interview published by Shooting Stars Mag. 

She said they found doing their first movie to be a nerve-wracking experience because lines would be changed right before filming. "One of the things that was challenging was that we had so many lines and we had to memorize them and then sometimes they would change the lines right before we had to film it," Becky Rosso said. "I feel confident in my acting when I have time to prepare, so that was quite challenging. But at the same time, I grew and I learned something and I think I'll be even better on the set in my next film," she said. 

At the time, she also spoke of a series the two were working on, which had a script in development. As far as anyone can tell, nothing came of this. It is unclear if the project was the same as the pilot they did for the Disney Channel (via Kidzworld), which apparently didn't get picked up. And the twin sisters never did another film or TV show.

The Rosso sisters aren't just British; it turns out that their mother is British, but their father is Latino, according to a YouTube video Becky and Milly did with sisters Lola and Georgina, and they all spent time in England, Venezuela, and Colombia while growing up. (They actually have one more sister who appears to not have pursued the limelight.) The Rossos also recorded a song called "Lucky Girl" that was used in "Legally Blondes," which was one of their first forays into music. 

At the time they made the YouTube video in 2014, they were opening for Demi Lovato on her Neon Lights tour with songs like "Hola Hola" and the unreleased "I Like Boys." Distractify reports that they were signed by Capitol Records and were repped by Kevin Jonas Sr., the father of the Jonas brothers. In early 2014, the family-based group released a four-song EP, which is still available on iTunes.

So, their musical career started going well, even if they had stopped acting by this time. They were posting on social media and appeared to be very present in the entertainment business and happy to be there. However, their family then suffered a tragedy that apparently changed their lives for good and altered their thinking about stardom, too. 

Checking out the final posts on the Rosso sisters' social media evokes a sense of sadness, as they spoke about their mother's illness. In September 2014, they posted an Instagram update saying that they'd just run a 5K for pancreatic cancer, "a cause very close 2 our hearts." In October, they posted another update, saying that they had come to the East Coast, where their mother was having surgery for her pancreatic cancer. "If you are going through a hard time with a loved one who has a serious illness, you are not alone," the sisters said in an image. "Don't give up hope, even in the darkest days. We were originally given terrible news & now our prayers have been answered & we have hope again." 

Although they posted a few times on Twitter later in the fall referencing fan support, the next Instagram post, from February 2015, was a picture of their mother Anthea as a younger woman. The sisters wrote that they were "heartbroken & devastated" by the death of their mother after a tough cancer battle. "She was our best friend and inspiration, & the most caring, loving, selfless, kind-hearted person we could ever imagine. After much thought & consideration, we have decided not to carry on with our girl group and making music, & to close this chapter in our lives, even though it was just the beginning and we hadn't released music in the US yet," they wrote. They apologized and thanked their fans, noting, "during these extremely difficult past few months, our hopes and dreams for the future have changed."

Not much has been heard publicly from the sisters since, either collectively or individually. With many former child stars, a wedding, pregnancy, birth, or other significant event might be reported in the press even if the once-famous name isn't on radars any longer. This isn't the case with the Rossos. If most of the sisters have social media accounts today, they are under different, unknown names. However, you can find Milly through an old, private Facebook account. 

TV Over Mind says that both sisters married in 2018 and Becky has a career in user interface/user experience design but it's unclear where this information stems from. The Rossos — all five of them, not just Milly and Becky — appear to have embraced private life completely and successfully. While it's likely that their mothers' death was the catalyst for this change, fans may never fully understand exactly what thought processes led them to their current paths. Hopefully, whatever those paths are, they're happy walking them.