Melissa Gilbert was 47 when she divorced Bruce Boxleitner, and the split caused her to go through a midlife crisis. In an interview with Page Six, Gilbert opened up about her post-divorce choices. "It was like, I lost my mind," she told the outlet. "One of my friends says, 'You know, every once in a while we all have to go to the zoo. And you went and now you're back.'"
In her 2022 memoir "Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade," Gilbert explained that she attempted to recapture her youth after her divorce. "I had Botox, fillers, recolored my hair and bought a Mustang convertible at the urging of the inappropriately young French dude I began dating," she wrote in her book. Gilbert also admitted that she jumped into a new relationship with a younger guy who came with a ton of red flags.
The "Little House on the Prairie" alum finally had a wake-up call when a roof collapsed above her patio, causing her to suffer a concussion and forcing her to reflect on her life in the fast lane — and the bad example she was setting for her sons. "My life clearly wasn't working," she wrote. "I couldn't be with inappropriate dudes anymore. I couldn't continue to do these things to my face and my body. I had to figure out who I was and where I was headed and what was good and healthy for me."
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