Melissa Gilbert revealed that her biological father “knew” she was his daughter after seeing her on television.
The Little House on the Prairie star, 61, said on the Tuesday, July 8, episode of the “Patrick LabyorSheaux” podcast that she called her birth father as an adult to attempt to share news of their relationship with him — but he already knew the truth.
“I didn’t tell him who I was, and then he asked me, ‘Well, who are you? What do you do?’” she told host Patrick Labyorteaux during the podcast. “And I said, ‘Well, here’s the thing.’ And I said, ‘Did you ever watch Little House on the Prairie?’ And he said, ‘You’re Laura, aren’t you? I knew it.’ He knew it.”
Referring to Melissa’s onscreen character Laura Ingalls, Melissa’s father later introduced her to his other children. “When I met my half siblings, we all look alike,” Melissa explained. “So, you could definitely see it. So, it’s pretty clear.”
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The actress was raised by her adoptive parents, Barbara Cowan and the late Paul Gilbert.
Melissa, who starred on the historical drama series for its entire run from 1974 to 1983, noted that, as apparent, she too recognized shared physical features in her own children. “When I saw [her son, Dakota] for the first time, I went, ‘Oh my god,’” she said of her first child, born in 1989. “He had my eyebrows and he had my lips, and I’d never seen anyone that looked like me. And then I realized there’s got to be more.”
Melissa is mother to two children, Dakota, whom she shares with her first husband, director Bo Brinkman, and another son, Michael, born in 1995, whom she shares with her second husband, actor Bruce Boxleitner. (Melissa later married Timothy Busfield in 2013.)
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The actress also revealed on the podcast that her birth mother, who passed away before Melissa began searching for her biological parents, was a former exotic dancer while her birth father was a stock car racer and musician.
Despite much time spent on the long-running series and subsequent TV movies and series including Nip/Tuck, Melissa revealed in January that she ditched the bright lights of Hollywood for a simpler life that includes the occasional theatre endeavor.
“I just didn’t feel like that [Hollywood] was a safe place for me to age. It’s so anti-aging, which is one of my least favorite expressions in the world,” she told Page Six in an interview published on January 25. “Anti-aging means dead.”
Melissa added that she felt pressure to “not get any older” while appearing onscreen, and to also “stay a size 2 or 4” while remaining in Hollywood, which led to her moving to New York City. “I went from, ‘Oh God, I better not get older!’ to ‘Oh God, I’m so glad I’m older!’” she told the outlet at the time. “I love the age I am right now. Sixty has been the most incredible year, just to look back on all the things I’ve done and to know that I’ve earned my opinions, I have value, I am wise.”
