Melissa Gilbert spent nine years starring on the show “Little House On The Prairie” alongside Michael Landon, her onscreen father, from 1974 until 1983. Gilbert and Landon were incredibly close during their time on the show until he had an affair with the program’s makeup artist, which is when everything changed.
In her memoir “Prairie Tale,” Gilbert wrote that her family was close with Landon’s. She was close friends with his children, and her mother was best friends with Landon’s wife Lynn. After Gilbert’s father died in 1976, Landon became a surrogate father to the 11 year-old actress, so it came as a major shock to her when he left his wife for the “Little House On the Prairie” makeup artist.
“She said he was seeing Cindy, whom she referred to alternately as the makeup artist and the girl who used to be a stand-in,” Gilbert wrote. “I think she said Auntie Lynn had thrown a bottle of vodka at Mike’s head.”
Gilbert was hit hard by Landon’s breakup with his wife.
“It was assumed I could soldier on as always with Mike after he’d left his wife,” she said. “I was caught in the middle as the people all around me chose sides.”
“He was creating a new life for him, one that didn’t include me. I get it now,” Gilbert added. “My family’s allegiance was with Auntie Lynn and the kids, so my relationship with Mike began to dissolve. No explanation. No discussion. No acknowledgment that I might be feeling confused, betrayed, and abandoned.”
Thankfully, Gilbert and Landon reconciled before he passed away in 1991 when she attended his daughter’s wedding the year before. When Gilbert learned Landon had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she went to visit him a week before his death, and they enjoyed reminiscing over old times.
Landon reportedly said to her during this visit, “I knew you would be the one,” referring to her role of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
“He pulled me toward him and we hugged,” she said. “Nothing else needed to be said. That hug was more than enough. That’s all he wanted.”
Landon passed away days later at the age of 54.
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