Melissa Gilbert Says She Had to 'Escape' Hollywood in 2013 in 'Order to Age': 'Everybody's Always Looking' (Exclusive)

09/05/2024 11:00 AM

The actress also shares with PEOPLE why leaving Los Angeles proved to be one of the best moves she has ever made

Melissa Gilbert couldn't be more thrilled she moved away from Los Angeles when she did.

With Little House on the Prairie celebrating its 50^th anniversary on Wednesday, Sept. 11, the actress opened up to PEOPLE about her personal journey in Hollywood and beyond. A product of Los Angeles in the '60s and '70s — "I had an incredible time growing up," she says — Gilbert started acting at age 2 and was cast in Little House on the Prairie as the iconic Laura Ingalls Wilder when she was 9. The role would establish her place in the cultural zeitgeist in that decades that followed.

While her successful acting career continued over the years with appearances in shows and TV movies including Sweet Justice, Tenure and Hometown Christmas, Gilbert decided to LA behind in 2013 "in order to age," shedding Hollywood's harsh and unrealistic expectations around actresses and their appearances.

"All of the pressures, I faced all of them," Gilbert admits, adding, "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."

Related: Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield's Relationship Timeline

"No matter how much we push it downstream is inevitable," Gilbert continues. "So are you going to age comfortably and happily? Are you going to fight it, be unhealthy and feel like there's something wrong with you for aging and that you're defective because you've gotten older?"

After L.A., Gilbert initially moved to Michigan, staying there with husband Timothy Busfield for five years. (The pair tied the knot on April 24, 2013.) The actress, accustomed to some of the trappings of Hollywood such as Botox and facial fillers like Restylane, stopped receiving the popular injectables and had her breast implants removed in 2015. She also stopped coloring her hair her trademark red, letting her shimmering gray shine through.

"I had to get out of there [L.A.], because it felt like I was not being authentically myself," she says. "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.'"

Gilbert and Busfield, 67, moved to New York City in 2018, then purchased a home in upstate New York a year later, which the couple affectionately dubbed "The Cabbage." Along the way, Gilbert launched her lifestyle brand Modern Prairie, which she co-owns with cofounder Nicole Haase, a former Williams Sonoma executive who now serves as Modern Prairie's CEO. (The two run the business "side-by-side," Gilbert explains.)

Related: Little House on the Prairie Star Melissa Gilbert on 'Half Pint' Hitting Menopause — and Why It's a 'Gift' to Grow Old (Exclusive)

From copper clay carafes and pie plates to lightweight, hand-painted woven dresses, the site now offers a wide range of apparel, housewares, craft items and other accessories, all created with "seasoned women" in mind.

"Modern Prairie is a place where the modern seasoned woman can connect with other women to share their stories as as we walk through all of these huge transitions in our lives," Gilbert explains. "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."

In considering her decades-long professional and personal journey, Gilbert she's developed a steadfast "strength."

"I think the strength that we possess having just survived this long is remarkable," she adds. "But the lessons that we've learned, I feel so much stronger and so much better in my own skin at this age than I ever have."

"I now am confident of my opinions. I feel like I've really earned the right to my opinions and I have something to say," she continues. "So I would encourage the women in the Modern Prairie community … to say it, to be it, to move forward, to try new things. Just because you're a certain age, it doesn't mean that life is over. Life is not over until it's over. So make the most of it while you can."

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All nine seasons of Little House on the Prairie can be streamed on Prime Video and Peacock.

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