While 14 of her books were best sellers and most were focused on health and well-being, doctors criticized her promotion of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and alternative cancer treatments.

[1] Suzanne Marie Mahoney was born in San Bruno, California, on October 16, 1946[2][3] as the third[4] of four children in a working-class Irish-American Catholic family.

[5] Her mother, Marion Elizabeth (née Turner), was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis "Frank" Mahoney, loaded cases of beer onto boxcars,[6] was a laborer and gardener.

[7][8][9] Somers first attended Mercy High School in Burlingame, California, but had trouble with her schoolwork because of dyslexia and her father's all-night rages, and she would often fall asleep in class.

[10][7] At age 17, Suzanne's father ripped off her prom dress and told her that she was "nothing," and she responded by hitting him in the head with a tennis racket.

[8][20] From 1971 to 1973, Somers was a panelist on the Alan Hamel-hosted Mantrap,[21] a weekday daytime panel show, from BCTV in Vancouver for CTV Television Network stations in Canada, and syndicated in the U.S.A.[22] In 1973, she appeared in bit parts in movies, such as the "Blonde in the white Thunderbird" in American Graffiti' and an uncredited role as a "pool girl" in Magnum Force.

[25] In 2009, Kristen Wiig gave a reading of excerpts from Suzanne Somers' book of poetry Touch Me, for Celebrity Autobiography (KUSH).

[30] After actresses Suzanne Zenor and Susan Lanier did not impress producers during the first two pilot episodes of the ABC sitcom Three's Company, based on the British sitcom Man About the House, Somers was suggested by ABC president Fred Silverman, who had seen her in her initial appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

The program was an instant success in the Nielsen ratings, eventually spawning a short-lived spin-off series, The Ropers, loosely based on the British sitcom George and Mildred, starring Norman Fell and Audra Lindley.

After ABC fired her from the program and terminated her contract, Somers sued the network for $2 million, saying her credibility in show business had been damaged.

The lawsuit was settled by an arbitrator who decided Somers was owed only $30,000, due to a single missed episode for which she had not been paid.

Her first set of nude photos was taken by Stan Malinowski in February 1970 when Somers was a struggling model and actress and did a test photoshoot for the magazine.

[46] Somers' original motivation for posing nude was to be able to pay medical bills related to injuries her son Bruce Jr. suffered in a car accident.

[47] The second nude pictorial by Richard Fegley appeared in December 1984 in an attempt by Somers to regain her diminished popularity after the Three's Company debacle in 1981.

Somers portrayed a widow with two young children who decided to fill the shoes of her late husband, a sheriff of a Nevada town.

[57] In 1991 a two-hour biographical film of Somers, starring the actress herself, entitled Keeping Secrets, based on her first autobiography of the same title, was broadcast on ABC.

[58] In the 2000s, Somers appeared on the Home Shopping Network for more than 25 hours per month, selling household items, clothing and jewelry that she designed.

[61] The show was supposed to run from 8 July until 3 September 2005,[62] but was cancelled in less than a week after poor reviews[63] and disappointing ticket sales.

[54] She blamed the harsh reviews: The New York Times referred to it as "...a drab and embarrassing display of emotional exhibitionism masquerading as entertainment.

"[64] The Associated Press referred to it as "an extended therapy session crossed with a tacky Las Vegas revue – minus the other showgirls".

Her book Ageless[71] includes interviews with 16 practitioners of bioidentical hormone therapy but focuses on one specific approach, the Wiley protocol.

A group of seven doctors, all of whom practice bioidentical hormone therapy to address women's health issues, issued a public letter to Somers and her publisher, Crown Publishing Group, stating that the protocol is scientifically unproven and dangerous and citing Wiley's lack of medical and clinical qualifications.

"[76] In January 2013, Somers suggested that Adam Lanza may have been driven to commit the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting because of the level of toxins in his diet and his exposure to household cleaners.

[84] In January 2007, a wildfire in Southern California destroyed Somers' home in Malibu, parts of Los Angeles metropolitan area.