It’s been 50 years since the world was introduced to Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House on the Prairie. We fell in love with half-pint’s braided pigtails and freckled face. She was only 9 years old when she took the part, and it changed her life.
After a successful career in Hollywood, she lived in Los Angeles but felt like no matter where she went, she couldn’t escape.
“All of the pressures, I faced all of them,” she told People, “When you live in Los Angeles, it’s like living at the mall when you work at the mall. Literally, everyone is in the business. When you walk into a restaurant, every head turns to see who walked in. Everybody’s always looking, curious, competing and that’s a really difficult thing, especially for a female actor. It puts a lot of pressure on staying thin and staying young and really it makes it hard to feel comfortable in one’s own skin, because [of] the aging process.”
Melissa Gilbert Married Timothy Busfield in 2013 And Made A Big Change
Melissa Gilbert married Timothy Busfield in 2013 and lived in Michigan for five years before she stopped worrying about the pressures of Hollywood. She stopped getting Botox and fillers, quit coloring her hair red, and had her breast implants removed. She finally felt like she had her life back.
“I had to get out of there [L.A.] because it felt like I was not being authentically myself,” she admitted. “In the five years that I was in Michigan, all of that stopped. … I stopped everything and just focused on being as physically and emotionally healthy as I could. And I think that shows, ‘Yes, I’m aging, but it’s not a curse — it’s a blessing.'”
She and Timothy now live in upstate New York and created a lifestyle brand, Modern Prairie.
“Modern Prairie is a place where the modern seasoned woman can connect with other women to share their stories as we walk through all of these huge transitions in our lives,” she said. “We are all going through incredible things, whether they’re physiological, hormonal changes happening, we’re losing our spouses and partners or have children leaving the nest.”
This story’s featured image is by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images.
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