How Melissa Gilbert changed her life forever!
Melissa Gilbert decided to reject the glamor of Hollywood and with her husband director Timothy Busfield moved to an estate in the Catskills.
Melissa Gilbert, the actress who embodied Laura Ingalls, a cute little girl in the cult American series "Little House on the Prairie" which is still broadcast with great success, decided to reject the glamor of Hollywood and with her husband director Timothy Busfield moved to an estate in the Catskills. Given what Gilbert told Fox News, her decision is not surprising, because, like many other acting stars who tasted fame as children, her life was like a horror movie.
"Now I am me - no hair dye, no fillers, no implants, no Botox. I just take care of myself. I try to eat as best I can. I drink a lot of water. And that's why I really enjoy the aging process," she said today. The 58-year-old actress explains how she found salvation in a simple life after fleeing a 14-acre property she and her husband bought four years ago and paid just $ 98,000 for it. She gave up plastic surgery and Hollywood expectations, which was not easy because she arrived under the spotlight as a three-year-old girl.
"Aging is a tough battle. In the end, everyone loses. It just doesn't fit into who I am and what my life is like now. It's exhausting and unnecessary. I had to find a place in myself, stop trying, or feel I had to be what everyone else wants me to be,” Gilbert explains. And they wanted that since she was little, especially when as a ten-year-old girl she got the role of Laura Ingalls who marked her career. "Little House on the Prairie" was filmed between 1974 and 1982, and the main actor was Michael Landon, who passed away in 1991 when he was only 54 years old.
The rest of her youth was not bright either, as Gilbert later revealed in her memoirs. She battled drugs and alcoholism, underwent multiple plastic surgeries throughout her career, and had a number of relationships with some of Hollywood’s leading stars - including Tom Cruise. The actress, who once admitted to drinking two bottles of wine in the evening, said she was attracted to men who smelled of alcohol after starring for years with producer and star Michael Landon, who "constantly drank vodka from a cup for coffee".
Gilbert realized she had a drinking problem when she fainted one night and woke up in a dog bed. The incident prompted her to go to therapy and attend AA meetings, as reported by Today in 2009. She also had a drug problem, because alcohol was not the only thing in which she sought salvation, and consolation and that put her in an even worse situation.
The 58-year-old also underwent nose surgery three times, up to the age of 20, after realizing that the make-up artists on the set were applying makeup to her nose to make it look smaller. Behind her is an unplanned pregnancy with then-boyfriend Rob Lowe, with whom she began dating at 17 years old.
Today, she is in her third marriage to 64-year-old Busfield, whom she married in 2013 and now enjoys harsh winters, raising chickens and organic food.
