Details About Hallmark Star Linda Gray's Marriage & Divorce From Ed Thrasher

Linda Gray had just begun her career as a commercial model when she and her ex-husband Ed Thrasher first met in 1960s. "I was 19," the actor recalled in her 2015 memoir, "The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction." An art director, Ed was looking for a young model with amazing legs to be featured on Billy May's new album cover, and Linda just fit the bill. There was a hint of flirtation from their very first meeting. "He looked through my portfolio and said, 'I need to see your legs. In the flesh.' I lifted the hem of my green dress about an inch, to show my knees," Linda recounted. He wanted to see higher up her skirt, but Linda refused. "'That's all you get,'" she told him. "He laughed and he hired me."

It didn't take long for the two to fall in love. The couple tied the knot in 1962 when Linda was 21 and Ed was 28 (not too big of an age gap compared to some Hollywood couples). However, during their honeymoon in Mexico, Linda had this realization that she had made a terrible mistake. "I knew from night one that my marriage was not a love match," she confessed. "But what could I do? I was stuck." In 1964, they welcomed a baby boy named Jeff Thrasher, followed by a daughter, Kehly Sloane, in 1966. It wasn't until their kids were older that Linda finally found the strength to walk away from her marriage and divorce Ed in 1983.

As the "Dallas" alum told Hello! in 2015, the union wasn't serving her. "We're living his dream, but what about mine? Of course, women stayed at home and raised their children — that was the way it was." She added, "But I was like, 'Is that all there is?'" 

Linda Gray recalled her decision to end her marriage to Ed Thrasher in her book "The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction." "I was miserable," the actor — who starred on Lifetime's holiday special "Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas" alongside her fellow soap divas in 2023 — admitted. "I thought, 'If I don't get out of this marriage, I will die.'" It was her sister and confidante, Betty Gray, who talked her through the divorce and convinced her to follow her heart. Afterwards, she decided to rent a home in Malibu where she would stay for the time being while navigating the divorce. Finally, it was time for her and Ed to have the talk. "I told him, 'I can't be married anymore,'" Linda recounted. "He barely reacted. 'Okay,' he said. 'Do what you have to do.'"

While it was by no means a toxic or abusive marriage, the Hollywood celeb-turned-Hallmark star described her union with Ed as a loveless, almost neighborly relationship. Still, Linda acknowledged the role her ex-husband played in her life: "He was my husband for a reason and he was one of my greatest teachers. If not for our marriage, our two beautiful children wouldn't have been born." Ed passed away in August 2006 in his Big Bear Lake home after battling cancer, their son, Jeff Thrasher, revealed to The New York Times. He was 74 years old. In a tragic turn of events, Jeff died 14 years later in November 2020 after being diagnosed with AML leukemia. He was 56 at the time of his death, according to The U.S. Sun.