When she was a newborn, this celebrity’s biological parents placed her for adoption because their careers took priority over raising a child. Up until the truth was revealed, the actress’ adoptive parents had concealed her background. Born on May 8, 1964, at the now-defunct French Hospital in Los Angeles, the future celebrity was adopted by Barbara Crane and Paul Gilbert just 24 hours after her birth.
Her younger brother Jonathan was also adopted by the couple. Barbara was a young actress whose career was cut short, and Paul was a stand-up comedian, actor, and dancer who began as an aerialist with a family circus from Buenos Aires. Barbara and Paul separated when she was six years old, but she remembered him fondly, saying, “I have never known a more brilliant, energetic, humorous, loving, and fair person than my father.”
When Paul passed away in 1976, it was widely believed he had suffered a stroke while in bed. Her adoption was then made public. In her book “Prairie Tale: A Memoir,” the celebrity revealed that she was told as a child that her biological father, David Darlington, was a Rhodes Scholar and her biological mother, Kathy Wood, was a prima ballerina.
Her adoptive parents had claimed her birth parents didn’t want to give up their careers to raise her. They said the timing of her birth was inconvenient, leading them to give up their daughter because her father was in the middle of a project. As she grew older, she learned the full truth: her birth mother was a dancer, not a prima ballerina, and her birth father was a stock car racer and sign painter.
Kathy and David had three children between them from previous marriages. After running away, becoming pregnant, and moving in with their kids, they realized they couldn’t support a seventh child. The actress was shocked to learn more about her adoption after her adoptive father’s death. Her godmother, Mitzi, recalled the day she was picked up from the hospital by her adoptive parents. She revealed that the Gilberts had not planned to adopt a child, stating, “Well, we weren’t planning on adopting a kid.”
When the couple received a call about the available baby girl, Barbara phoned her out-of-state husband, who told her to “go get it.” The actress was taken aback by being referred to as an “it,” but Barbara clarified that she hadn’t even been born yet. Barbara later revealed that they had been trying to conceive, undergoing fertility treatments, but had not considered adoption until they got the call.
In a July 2020 interview, the actress discussed the secrecy in her adoptive family. She disclosed to “CBS Sunday Morning” that she learned at age 11 that her father had died of a stroke, but found out at 45 that he had actually committed suicide. She concealed this secret from everyone, even herself, and vowed never to burden her children with such deep secrets.
To learn the truth about her adoptive father’s death, she hired a detective. The investigator discovered that the World War II veteran had threatened suicide while in excruciating pain and under VA care. The actress struggled with the grief of losing her father for about six months after learning the truth, during which she couldn’t eat or sleep. She has since come to terms with it and now supports mental health awareness and suicide prevention to honor his memory.
The actress also forgave Barbara for concealing the truth, despite feeling angry and betrayed for a long time. This chapter reveals that the star who overcame such challenges to become a famous actress is Melissa Gilbert, best known for her role as Laura “Half-Pint” Ingalls Wilder on “Little House on the Prairie,” which aired from 1974 to 1983. She published her memoir, “Back to the Prairie,” in July 2022 and currently enjoys spending time with her family.
Melissa feels “blessed” and mentioned that she is in a different place from her deceased adoptive father. She wishes Paul could have experienced the joy of having grandchildren and the value of a life partner who makes you feel heard, safe, and loved. Melissa and her third husband, Timothy Busfield, became grandparents to eight grandchildren in May 2022. The couple met in 2012 when Busfield, going through his second divorce, saw Melissa waiting for a friend in an empty bar.
In April 2013, they married in an intimate ceremony in Santa Barbara, California, with Melissa wearing a Morgane Le Faye dress. Barbara suggested the brand’s Santa Monica store when Melissa couldn’t decide what she wanted. In “Back to the Prairie,” Melissa wrote that Busfield wore a blue suit and was alone at the private event, with no guests present. After nearly a lifetime in Hollywood, Melissa had her first child, Dakota Paul Brinkman, with her first husband, actor Bo Brinkman.
Her second child, Michael Garrett Boxleitner, was born during her marriage to Bruce Boxleitner. Busfield, a father of three—Wilson, Daisy, and Samuel—currently lives peacefully with Melissa in a 14-acre cottage in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
