Tragic Details About Little House On The Prairie Star Melissa Gilbert's Divorce

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Actor Melissa Gilbert initially gained fame as a child star, when she started playing Laura on "Little House on the Prairie." Gilbert maintained a presence on the small screen throughout her adult years, portraying both Helen Keller and Anne Frank in made-for-TV biopics (if you're wondering how Randal confused the two historical figures in "Clerks II," maybe that's how), and even voicing Batgirl in "Batman: The Animated Series." But for all her success, Gilbert's real-life story is laced with tragedy, particularly as it pertains to her relationships. The actor's first marriage to Bo Brinkman was marred by infidelity, and sparked a feud between Gilbert and her former "Little House on the Prairie" co-star Shannen Doherty. But it was the end of her second marriage to "Tron" star Bruce Boxleitner that hit the former child star especially hard.

Gilbert radically altered her image in the wake of her 2011 divorce from Boxleitner, both figuratively and literally. In fact, between getting cosmetic work done, buying a sports car, and quickly entering a new relationship with a younger man, she basically went through the stereotypical "bad divorce" checklist. As the actor later confessed to Page Six in 2022, "It was like, I lost my mind." The List ran this by neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez, the director of Comprehend the Mind, who laid out why exactly this sort of post-divorce behavior is so common. "After a breakup or big life change, it's normal to feel like you've lost your sense of who you are," she shared, adding that many individuals "swing between wanting to escape the pain and trying to reinvent themselves overnight." However, Dr. Hafeez also laid out some healthier alternatives.

Not only was Melissa Gilbert's first marriage to Bo Brinkman rife with cheating on his part, but she felt that second husband Bruce Boxleitner had long drifted away from her by the time they called it quits. In her 2022 book "Back to the Prairie," the actor recalled an incident where she got back surgery, and Boxleitner seemed rather lackadaisical about making sure she had a ride home. "When my husband was called to bring me home, he asked if I could instead hire a car or ask a friend. [...] Bruce's response, or lack thereof, gave me plenty to think about during the long, slow recovery,"  Gilbert wrote. With that in mind, it's not hard to see why she felt she needed a sudden change after they split. 

But as Dr. Sanam Hafeez exclusively told us, it's better to ease into a new chapter than to rip the book up entirely. "It helps to pause and just sit with the discomfort instead of racing to fix it," she advised, adding, "Don't rush into relationships, extreme makeovers, or big changes just to fill the silence, those things can blur your judgment when you're still healing." Still, Gilbert wouldn't change a thing, as that tumultuous period shaped the person she became, and ultimately led her to now-husband Timothy Busfield, whom the former child star married in 2013. 

Her earlier advice notwithstanding, Dr. Hafeez reckons it's good that Gilbert isn't too hard on herself about the past. "The first step is to stop judging your past self through today's eyes," she said regarding leaving certain mistakes in the rearview, concluding simply, "You made choices based on what you knew then, not what you know now."