Melissa Gilbert's Tragic Real-Life Story

Trigger warning: The following article contains mentions of suicide, pregnancy loss, addiction, mental health issues, and sexual harassment.

If you grew up in the '70s or have an affinity for classic television, you're probably familiar with the series "Little House on the Prairie," the show where Melissa Gilbert got her start. The show, which was based on the book series inspired by author Laura Ingalls Wilder's real life, ran from 1974 to 1983 and centered around the lives of a pioneer family in the American Midwest during the late 1800s. Gilbert was just 9 years old when she was cast as Laura, the second eldest of the Ingalls children. While this was an exciting development at such a young age, she would go on to endure many painful incidents throughout her life.

In the four decades since "Little House on the Prairie" ended, Gilbert continued acting and even dabbled in directing and producing, but her career has stalled in recent years. Eventually, after undergoing loss, heartbreak, and addiction, she left Los Angeles behind and moved to a cabin in Catskill, New York. Gilbert doesn't miss the Hollywood lifestyle, as she told Entertainment Tonight in May 2022, "My life is just a lot more gentle. I don't have that burning ambition that I used to have. ... I don't miss the pressure. I don't miss the race. I don't miss the competition. I don't miss the feeling bad because I'm not younger and thinner."

It's no surprise that Melissa Gilbert became involved in Hollywood from a young age, as she was adopted when she was just 1 day old by a couple of entertainers, comedian Paul Gilbert and actor Barbara Crane. Unfortunately, the child actor grew to learn that much of her life had been fabricated early on, from the stories she was told about her birth parents to the fact that she was never given a proper Jewish conversion ceremony.

Because of this, Gilbert's relationship with her mother was strained, which she wrote about in her 2009 memoir "Prairie Tale" (via Today). "My mother, whom I love dearly, has continually revised my life story within the context of a complicated family history that includes more than the usual share of divorce, step-children, dysfunction, and obfuscation, and I've spent most of my adult life attempting to deconstruct that history and separate fact from fiction, especially as the facts pertain to ... me!" she penned.

Today, Gilbert has two biological children, three step-children from her current marriage and two from a previous-marriage. There's no doubt that the misfortune she encountered as a child influenced her parenting. She spoke further on her childhood while on "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" in November 2014, saying, "I had my own familial traumas and difficulties. My father died when I was 11. My parents divorced when I was 6. My mother remarried a few times. There was sadness and discomfort at home."

An unthinkable tragedy struck Melissa Gilbert when she was just 11 years old and her father died. He had suffered a stroke a year prior, so it didn't seem suspicious when she, along with many others, was told that he'd succumbed to a second stroke in his sleep. However, this wasn't the truth and it took many years for Gilbert to learn the true cause of her father's death.

In speaking on "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" in 2014, Gilbert explained, "There were only a couple of people who knew the truth that my father had in fact committed suicide. ... It was a bad time for me. I was not functioning at all for a few weeks." Her dad was a veteran of World War II and Gilbert explained that he'd had "uncontrolled excruciating pain," and ended his life. 

In a February 2022 Instagram post, Gilbert honored her dad on the anniversary of his death alongside a caption that read, "I am well past that soul-crushing pain now but ... I realize that I am the same age today as he was when he took his life those many years ago. ... I wish, like me, he could have the love of a true life partner. To feel cherished, safe and most of all, heard."

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

Melissa Gilbert is now happily married to actor and director Timothy Busfield, but back when she was a teenager she used to hang out with members of the Brat Pack. One of which was Rob Lowe, who she started dating when she was 17. They fell in love quickly, with the "St. Elmo's Fire" star proposing in 1986, despite the fact that neither of the stars was faithful to one another throughout their relationship.

Tragically, their relationship didn't last long, as they split up shortly after Gilbert revealed to Lowe that she was pregnant. He told the actor that he wasn't prepared to take on the responsibility of fatherhood, nor was he ready to marry her, and they called off their relationship. Gilbert spoke with Today in June 2009 about their relationship, explaining, "We broke up. It ran its course. I think we were just too young. ... It was very, very painful. It was a very dark and difficult time for me. ... At the time it was devastating."

Gilbert suffered a miscarriage shortly after she and Lowe ended things. As the "Little House on the Prairie" star wrote in her 2009 memoir, the loss hit her hard. "I had lost my baby and my relationship with Rob. ... And it hurt like hell." They both eventually moved on, with Lowe marrying makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff in 1991, but it took Gilbert some time to recover.

When Melissa Gilbert married Bo Brinkman, they barely knew one another, having met just six weeks before getting engaged. The couple married in 1988 and had one child together, Dakota, before they ultimately divorced in 1994, likely due to the unstable nature of their relationship.

According to the "Little House on the Prairie" star, Brinkman cheated on her with multiple women, one of whom Gilbert claimed was the late Shannen Doherty, who worked with Gilbert on "Little House on the Prairie." Another time during their marriage, Gilbert went downstairs in the middle of the night to retrieve pumped milk from the fridge for her newborn and discovered Brinkman on the sofa with a sex worker. In her memoir "Prairie Tale," Gilbert wrote, "I thought I was dreaming. I shook my head and blinked my eyes to make sure I was awake. Bo was indeed screwing another woman. He stopped and turned toward me. 'What are you looking at?' he snarled."

Despite the pain their relationship caused the actor, Gilbert explained that she wouldn't take it back if she could. She continued, "From day two, our marriage was a challenge fueled by alcohol, insecurity, and the unfamiliarity of two people who barely knew each other trying to merge their lives and work. I would love to say that I wish I'd spent more time getting to know Bo before we married. But then I probably wouldn't have married him. And if I hadn't married him, I wouldn't have had an amazing kid."

Michael Landon played Charles, the patriarch of the Ingalls family on "Little House on the Prairie," and worked closely with Melissa Gilbert until the end of the series. Given that her dad had died while she was working on the show, Landon had become a father figure to her. As Gilbert wrote in "Prairie Tale" (via Today) in 2009, "I've realized his influence on me extended beyond the set. As a kid, I didn't know he sipped vodka from his coffee mug. ... But I'm sure he's one reason why, as a young adult, I almost always picked men who smelled like alcohol."

Tragically, Landon died from pancreatic cancer in July of 1991, just months after his diagnosis. The loss of her co-star weighed heavily on Gilbert, and she fell into a depression. She also detailed this time in her life in her memoir, writing, "I was heartbroken. ... It seemed everyone in the world wanted a quote. Yet I was incapable of communicating. ... I stayed in bed with the shades drawn. Anytime I got up and tried to move around, it felt as if I was moving through mud. I walked around dazed in my pajamas for days" (via Showbiz Cheatsheet).

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Melissa Gilbert at one point became one of the approximately 15 million Americans who struggle with alcohol use disorder. She spoke with Entertainment Tonight in September 2012 about how her addiction took hold, saying, "When I hit my late thirties, and my grandfather passed away and something in me just triggered, and I started having a hard time falling asleep." Her marriage to actor Bo Brinkman also played a part, as their relationship became characterized by alcohol use.

At the peak of Gilbert's alcoholism, she was drinking two bottles of wine a night. It took one incident in particular for the actor to realize she needed to make a change when she'd passed out in her dog's bed while a guest was over for dinner. According to the "Little House on the Prairie" star, her son was the one who asked her to stop drinking and she sought help. "I immediately for myself went and joined a 12-step program — joined Alcoholics Anonymous actually, and just going to the meetings and listening to people in those mediums gave me a lot of information and a lot of help."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

They say the third time's the charm, and this seems to be the case when it comes to Melissa Gilbert's love life. Only a year after her first marriage ended, she married her second husband, "Babylon 5" star Bruce Boxleitner, in 1995, and (spoiler alert) he unfortunately wasn't the one. They were together for 16 years and had one son together before finally calling it quits in 2011 after a back injury led Gilbert to the realization that he wasn't the one for her. 

According to the television star, Boxleitner wasn't very sympathetic while she was recovering from back surgery. In her 2022 memoir "Back to the Prairie" (via Showbiz Cheat Sheet), she wrote, "Postsurgical care and compassion was not Bruce's specialty. ... I could recover without his support and compassion, but the question I suddenly asked myself was, 'Why? Why was it okay for me not to be cared for? What made me feel that I didn't deserve to have that in my life?'"

Gilbert's second divorce hit her harder than the first, as she told Page Six in May 2022, "It was like, I lost my mind." Following their split, the actor got cosmetic enhancements, bought a luxury sports car, and entered into a relationship with a younger man. Gilbert added, "One of my friends says, 'You know, every once in a while we all have to go to the zoo. And you went and now you're back.'"

Over the years, Melissa Gilbert has tragically dealt with several injuries that have impacted her career in more ways than one. Back in the mid-'90s, she injured her neck while on the set of a television show, which led to years-long pain caused by a herniated disk. She had to have cervical fusion surgery, and all was well until 2009 when she began to experience back pain again due to another herniated disk. While being treated, she had a fall and her doctor discovered she had broken her back.

Fast forward to 2012, and Gilbert suffered yet another injury while competing on "Dancing with the Stars," which resulted in a concussion and further issues with her neck. Not long after, the patio cover of her home fell onto her head, leading to another concussion. All of these issues accumulated in 2016 when Gilbert was running for Congress, and she was instructed to pull out of the running.

During an interview with People in May 2016, Gilbert, heartbroken, explained, "I have numbness in my right hand, shooting pains in my right arm, and numbness in my neck. So, after years of care, my neurologists are sending me to a neurosurgeon because I need to have another spinal surgery. ... It's indescribable to have to make this decision because I had my sights set on my opponent and a lot of people around me felt that I could win."

Tragically, like many women in Hollywood, Melissa Gilbert experienced an incident of sexual harassment from someone in a power of authority. The incident, which she recounted for the first time to Andy Cohen in November 2017 while on "Radio Andy," left her in tears.

Gilbert spoke about how a director, whom she was considering working with, had humiliated her, all because she'd embarrassed him in a social setting previously. "I'm actually sitting here telling you this story, afraid to say his name because I'm worried about backlash. ... He had me read a scene. I had auditioned and then he said 'I've written this special scene for you, I'd like you to do it with the actor.' ... The whole scene was just my character on her hands and knees saying, 'Do me, baby.' Really dirty, horrible," the actor explained. Despite her concerns about naming the man, Gilbert finally said, "F*** it. It was Oliver Stone. And it was 'The Doors' movie." She said the demand performance was meant to humiliate her but she didn't do it. Instead, she left the audition crying.

Death has been a constant in Melissa Gilbert's life since she was young. From her father's death when she was 11 to her co-star's tragic end, and then her mother's death in 2017, saying goodbye is something Gilbert has had to do countless times. Another incident that hit the actor hard happened in June 2023, when Treat Williams died in a motorcycle accident.

The actor, who was known for 1979's "Hair" and 1998's "Deep Rising," had a lasting impact on the "Little House on the Prairie" star, which she revealed in a June 2023 Instagram post. Gilbert wrote about how Williams had been her "first major crush" and she was profoundly moved when, many years later, he demonstrated his kindness. After her friend's son died unexpectedly, she was desperate to fly home for the service but struggled to find any flights, so Williams offered to let her charter a plane from his company despite never having met the actor. He even left Gilbert a note expressing his condolences.

"None of us will forget his kindness and humanity. Especially me. Oh how you are loved and oh how you will be missed. All my love to Pam and the kids during this horrible, heartbreaking time. Dearest Treat my friend and childhood crush, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest," Gilbert wrote.