She’s one of our most beloved actresses, known for her grace, talent, and unforgettable roles. But behind her bright smile lies a shocking truth: as a newborn, she was placed for adoption by her biological parents.
The reason? They valued their careers over raising a child.
Even more surprising? For years, she believed a different story about her past —one carefully woven by the people who raised her. The real revelation would turn her world upside down…
On May 8, 1964, at a now-defunct hospital in Los Angeles, a newborn came into the world, destined for a life that would capture the hearts of millions.
Just 24 hours after her arrival, fate stepped in with an incredible twist — and she was adopted by a loving couple, Barbara Crane and Paul Gilbert.
The girl’s biological parents were a newly engaged couple, Kathy Wood and David Darlington, who made the heart-wrenching decision to place their newborn for adoption right after her birth. Years later, when the actor uncovered the truth about her roots, she discovered that her mother had been a dancer — not the renowned ballerina she once believed — and her father was a stock car racer, far from the distinguished scholar she’d imagined.
Despite the dramatic start to her life, the actress found herself in a loving home.
Lied about her dad
Her adoptive parents were actor and comedian Paul Gilbert and Barbara Crane, who was both a dancer and actress. Growing up in such a creative household laid the foundation for her acting career, where comedy and drama seamlessly came together. Surrounded by laughter, stories, and performances, she honed a natural talent that would one day make her a beloved star on screens everywhere.
However, Barbara and Paul split up when their daughter was just six. Her mother then married an attorney – and her father would soon be gone.
When Paul Gilbert passed away in 1976, the story going around was that he’d suffered a stroke in bed. Years later, the beloved actress discovered that her dad had been a VA patient who struggled with chronic pain and had ultimately taken his own life.
“I was 45 when I found out that my father had taken his own life,” she told CBS Sunday Morning in 2020. “Yeah, that was a very deeply-hidden secret from pretty much everybody in my life.”
But she always remembered her dad fondly, saying, “I have never known a more brilliant, energetic, humorous, loving, and fair person than my father.”
Around that time, the actress adoption was also made public. According to her adoptive parents, her birth parents weren’t ready to give up their careers to raise a child. They said the timing was all wrong, with her father being tied up in a big project at the time of her birth.
”A large part of my life has been an illusion,” the actress once wrote and said ”… There’s my mother’s version, there’s the one in the press, there’s the one I lived, and there’s the one I’m still trying to figure out.”
Had no plans to adopt
She also later found out that her biological parents, Kathy and David, were “both married to other people. They each had three children.
They ran off together, got pregnant, moved in together with six children, and decided they couldn’t afford a seventh,” she revealed in her memoir Prairie Tale.
A few days after Paul Gilbert died, family and friends had gathered at her mother’s house and her godmother Mitzi was describing the moment her parents first picked the baby up from the hospital.
The actress ecalled her mother then saying: “Well, imagine what a shock it was for me! I mean, we had no plans to adopt a child.”
“We weren’t even looking,” she continued. “Then I got a phone call that there was a baby available and did I want it?” She turned to me. “I called your dad. He was on the road and he said, ‘Yes, that’s the one. Go get it.’”
The actress voiced her concern at being referred to as ‘it’.
“Well, actually, you weren’t even born yet,” her mother assured her.
Her past haunts her
By now, you might have an idea of who we’re talking about. Yep, it’s the one and only Melissa Gilbert — most famously known as Laura Ingalls Wilder from Little House on the Prairie. Filming the show between the ages of 8 and 18, she literally grew up on set, and the experience changed her life, including finding a father figure in her on-screen dad Michael Landon.
In recent years, Melissa Gilbert has traded the glitz and glamour of Hollywood for a quieter, more peaceful life in the Catskills. At 60, the actress now enjoys a simpler, rural lifestyle with her husband, Tim Busfield. Her mornings resemble something straight out of a Little House rerun: she keeps chickens, tends to crops, and is always in the middle of a home renovation project.
But even with this tranquil new life, her past and childhood sometimes come back to haunt her.
Melissa said she wasn’t able to explore the many questions she had following her mom’s admissions but when she did find a good moment to query what had been said her mother told her that she and her father had been struggling to conceive but at that point hadn’t considered adoption.
The former child star accepted that response but later realized that it just threw up further questions about her childhood.
“My father had a daughter from a previous marriage. I’d met her once. And my mother was pregnant twice after me, once with a baby she lost at six months and once with my sister Sara.
“Both of my parents were fertile. So why couldn’t they — obviously more was going on than I knew. Once again, the beginning of my life was defined by a question mark.”
Share your thoughts with us—how do you think Melissa’s story has shaped the person she is today? Let’s talk about it!
