Melissa Gilbert, best known for her role as Laura Ingalls Wilder in “Little House on the Prairie,” recently spoke vulnerably about her experience and regrets with cosmetic procedures. Overall, the TV star who played Laura Ingalls from 1974 to 1983, said during an interview with People Magazine that it made her look worse, not better.
She said candidly, “I literally looked like Carrot Top, the comedian. My hair was too red, and when I did Botox, I became the spawn of Satan with pointy eyebrows. I had no facial expression, which is anathema, considering what I do for a living.” Gilbert added, “It’s exhausting keeping up that kind of façade. I was very insecure.”
Gilbert, now 59, shared that her insecurities started in 2012 when she competed on “Dancing with the Stars.” She reflected, “I was approaching 50, and there was this panic of, ‘This is it. I’ve got to wring this out while I can,'” admitting the milestone birthday sparked the decision to make a handful of “bad choices” cosmetically. Gilbert met her current husband, Timothy Busfield, the same year she appeared on the ABC series, and she credits him with helping her embrace her natural beauty.
She said of the aging process, “I embraced it. And when I would say, ‘I think I’m going to stop coloring my hair,’ he’d say, ‘Can’t wait to see what color it is. This is so exciting!’ When I said, ‘I think I want to get my breast implants taken out permanently,’ he said, ‘Do it!’” Gilbert went on to say it’s “incredibly uplifting” to be married to a man who accepts and celebrates her for who she is and how she looks.
Gilbert told People Magazine, “It makes a big difference to come home to someone who sees me in sweats with no makeup on and my hair back in a ponytail and goes, ‘Oh, you are the most beautiful woman.’ As opposed to someone who goes, ‘I think you could lose a little weight.’ Or, ‘I’m getting nervous about these lines around your eyes,’ which did happen in my past.”
She added, “I take care of myself to the best of my ability, but I am what I am. I am not going to sacrifice my well-being because someone expects me to be something they have in their mind.” Gilbert has started her lifestyle brand for older women called Modern Prairie and says she no longer yearns for her younger years. “Aging is not a disease. It’s time we celebrate it,” she says. “I think it’s so amazing that I get to grow old.”
Modern Prairie has also launched an app. “Women need to know they’re not alone,” she says of wanting to create a Modern Prairie community. “There’s always someone there to help us through, to walk ahead of us, to walk behind us, to hold us up if need be.”