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The Sad And Tragic Real-Life Stories Of These Brady Bunch Stars

Mar 28, 2024
The Brady Bunch family is as healthy as they come on screen. However, the

tragic

real

-

life

stories

of the actors and actresses who played them serve as proof that even the most functional American families may not be what they seem. Maureen McCormick's

life

was nothing like that of the impeccable eldest Brady daughter she played on television. Actress Marcia Brady almost became a child star cliché when she developed a cocaine addiction around age 18. In her 2008 memoir, Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice, McCormick admitted that her addiction was so severe that she, quote, "had sex with a cocaine dealer in exchange for drugs." .
the sad and tragic real life stories of these brady bunch stars
She also constantly missed acting opportunities because she attended meetings high on drugs. However, McCormick didn't hit rock bottom until she went on a three-day cocaine binge and missed her audition for The Brady Brides in the early '80s. According to Today, her agent climbed a ladder to break into her bedroom and dragged her away. out of the closet: "He ripped off my clothes, threw me into the shower and told me we were going to Paramount." Fortunately, McCormick found sobriety in 1985 after meeting her husband Michael Cummings. He threatened to leave after she relapsed while they were dating, he told US Weekly in 2018.
the sad and tragic real life stories of these brady bunch stars

More Interesting Facts About,

the sad and tragic real life stories of these brady bunch stars...

He explained: "It was like the coldest shower you could ever take. There's just no way I'm losing someone I love." If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 national helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. That's 1-800-662-4357. Maureen McCormick's drug-addicted lifestyle led her to miss out on more than a few movie roles, including a coveted spot in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. According to her memoir, the Brandy Bunch star also had three unwanted pregnancies. She wrote: "I was 18, 19 and 20 when I had each abortion. This shows how careless I was.
the sad and tragic real life stories of these brady bunch stars
It shows what the drugs did to me and how far I went." That being said, the TV star's biggest fear at the time was contracting an STD. While speaking to Today in 2008, McCormick revealed, "My grandmother died in a mental hospital from syphilis, going crazy. Her husband committed suicide a week later." While the actress was terrified of suffering the same fate, penicillin has been used to cure the disease since 1943, according to Business Insider. She continued: "My mother got syphilis. And I thought I had syphilis my whole life. I thought I would also go crazy and end up in a mental institution.
the sad and tragic real life stories of these brady bunch stars
It was horrible. I was battling depression for a long, long time." If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call or chat online with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Or text HOME to crisis text line 741741. Marcia was always positioned as the prettier and more popular sister, at least in Jan's opinion. In truth, Maureen McCormick had issues with the character's image. she. But the TV star's deep-seated problems didn't begin and end with cocaine use; She also struggled with bulimia for a decade. In a 2007 interview with People, McCormick admitted that the pressure of the show wasn't what actually caused her to have an eating disorder.
Rather, it was her experience when she was a teenager. She first developed disordered eating habits at age 17, when she enrolled in a public high school. She said: "I was with some girls, we had a gallon of ice cream and someone mentioned that we could eat it all and not gain weight. It seemed ideal. Once I started, it was hard to stop." Being forced to put on a swimsuit for the camera at her on-screen job after The Brady Bunch only reinforced her anxiety. She told People: "That made me feel very self-conscious." It seemed like every time she gained weight, she would go back to purging, even if she thought she had kicked the habit.
Fortunately, the actress ended up recovering from bulimia and said of her success: "Being able to quit drugs and believe in a higher power gave me the tools to end bulimia." Jan and Marcia not only had some kind of weird rivalry on The Brady Bunch; On-screen sisters Eve Plumb and Maureen McCormick also didn't get along in

real

life. According to Radar Online, their feud was so serious that a reunion in 2010 was completely rejected, more than 30 years after the actresses shared the screen in the famous series. So what could cause a decades-long grudge? Apparently it was Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!
In a 2008 interview with Today, McCormick claimed that the pair were best friends at one point and that he missed Plumb "a lot," but that things were never the same after she got carried away with a late-night show. decades before. . McCormick was promoting the 1981 spin-off The Brady Brides and making light of the rumors surrounding the cast when she jokingly claimed to have kissed Plumb, who was none too thrilled with the lesbian rumor that her prank helped to spark. light. McCormick explained, "I said she had a crush on me with everyone. I was having fun, something she joked about, and she didn't take it that way." McCormick alleged that she since then tried to patch things up with Plumb, but to no avail, as he reportedly refused to answer her calls.
As we know from The Brady Bunch's theme song, the girls have golden hair just like their mother, which is a key characteristic of the group's blended family. According to Mental Floss, the show's producers specifically set out to have the children's hair match that of their respective on-screen biological parents. They had two groups of children ready for the close-up: a group of dark-haired boys and blonde girls and a group of blonde boys and dark-haired girls. Finally, a blonde Florence Henderson was cast as the Brady matriarch and the rest is history. Unfortunately, Susan Olsen, who was only eight years old when she first played Brady's youngest daughter, reportedly didn't have the right shade of blonde and had to bleach her hair.
Anyone who has ever gone bottle blonde knows that bleaching can be painful. Not only can it melt swathes of your hair, but it's also incredibly itchy, and we haven't even mentioned the potential chemical burns. However, producers allegedly bleached Olsen's hair so much that by the second season, she was "falling out in clumps," according to Mental Floss. Luckily, creator Sherwood Schwartz finally stepped in and allowed the poor child star's natural hair color to shine freely. As Brady's youngest daughter, Susan Olsen didn't really get into much trouble while she was on The Brady Bunch. Sure, actress Cindy Brady kissed her on-screen brother Mike Lookinland in the set doghouse at age nine, but that's just the stuff of innocent playground crushes.
Although the family comedy was truly a product of the '70s, Cindy was a little young to try the devil's lettuce like some of her on-screen siblings. Olsen only ventured into the world of drugs when she was an adult. The former child star addressed these drug dealer rumors in an interview with News.com.au years later: "I guess technically, but I was actually a grower, my husband at the time and I grew it hydroponically. I never really enjoyed it much." smoke". "It makes me very paranoid. But it was my husband's idea." To be clear: Olsen was growing cannabis years before it was legalized for recreational use in some states.
Although the TV star found her foray into illicit gardening enjoyable, Olsen was bothered by the fact that she was doing something, quote, "so illegal." In the end, she became one of the reasons why she filed for divorce. Robert Reed, better known as patriarch Mike Brady, never publicly came out as gay. While he did not explicitly discuss his sexuality with the cast, he nevertheless became known to them. According to the Miami Herald, Florence Henderson first discovered his sexuality while rehearsing a kissing scene for the pilot. Years later, Reed's on-screen children realized they all knew his TV dad's secret while attending Maureen McCormick's wedding.
Susan Olsen told News.com.au: "She never wanted us to know. She never had any intention of coming out, and I think she would have been mortified to know that we knew none of us had ever talked about it." because we didn't think it was a big deal." "Oh, good. I thought everyone could see it." However, the cast fully supported Reed, even if he wasn't aware of it. He died in 1992 after battling cancer and HIV. The Huffington Post reported that Olsen took to Facebook to speak openly about her belief that, quote, "being gay killed" her on-screen father.
She wrote: "Because it was so taboo, he was never able to make peace with himself. He never allowed himself to have genuine love. If he'd been allowed, he would have been the best husband ever and might still be alive." If the cast of The Brady Bunch were competing for the title of least controversial, Florence Henderson would have given it to the late Ann B. Davis a run for her money, at least until she dropped some major truth bombs in her 2011 memoir. Turns out, Henderson wasn't as monogamous as her on-screen counterpart, and it's true that she got the bugs after cheating on her husband with the former mayor of New York City.
In her memoir Life Is Not a Stage, Henderson admitted that she had woken up with, quote, "little black things" crawling on her after having an affair with John Lindsay, who was also married, in the 1960s. She claimed she was lonely, knew it was wrong, but did it anyway. Henderson wrote in her memoirs: "I guess I learned the hard way that crabs don't discriminate, but go through all socioeconomic strata". She at least she had a sense of humor about it. Mike Lookinland, who played Brady's younger brother Bobby, fell into a similar trap as many child

stars

who came before him.
After his run on The Brady Bunch, the actor became involved in a life of drugs and alcohol when he was 20, while trying to live the childhood he never had. The Huffington Post reported that on a 2013 episode of Oprah: Where Are They Now?, the star admitted that she thought alcohol was, quote, "the best thing in the world" the first time she had a drink. Lookinland developed a problem shortly thereafter and it lasted for many years of his life. He spoke of how hopeless he felt during that time: "Never in a million years would I have imagined that I could sit here today, sixteen years sober, and tell you, 'I did it.'" Lookinland previously told People that he also used drugs for a time, but managed to kick the habit when he married his college sweetheart and established a career designing custom concrete countertops.
At the time of this video, the former actor has been sober for more than 20 years. Christopher Knight, better known as middle brother Peter Brady, struggled to find his footing following his television fame. When The Brady Bunch ended in 1974, the actor enrolled at UCLA. However, he lasted less than a year before Hollywood lured him back and he quit to do The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. According to a 1992 interview with People, the star was worried about finding work for much of the '80s, so he turned to cocaine and marijuana. Knight finally calmed down, at least temporarily. After accepting a sales rep job offered to him by his old high school friend, the celebrity ended up reprising his role for the 1990 spin-off The Bradys and played a coach in 1995's The Brady Bunch Movie alongside others. smaller film and television projects.
However, his main job was as general manager of Visual Software Inc. He told People: "The only way to have salvation with this Brady Bunch thing is to leave show business." At the time of writing, Knight's last on-screen project was a small cameo as Dr. Andrews on the long-running soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful in 2018. He also played Grandpa Clarke on The Last Sharknado: It's About Time of the year. before, because honestly, how could you turn down being a part of the Z movie story with Tara Reid? Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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