Maureen McCormick is best known for playing the popular and insanely beautiful Marcia
Brady on the hit television show The Brady Bunch.
She lived out her formative years in front of millions of television viewers, playing
Marcia from the time she was 12 until she was 17.
When the show came to an end in 1974, McCormick reprised her role in the spinoff series and
made-for-TV movies that followed, but through it all, no one knew that her real life was
snowballing out of control behind the scenes.
Here is the tragic real-life story of Maureen McCormick.
Alleged abuse
Growing up as the youngest of four kids, McCormick suffered from anxiety due to her tumultuous
family life.
In a piece written for Newsweek, the child star revealed:
"In the early '70s, my older brother was battling a heroin addiction and my father was having
an affair, both of which devastated my family."
According to the actress' memoir, Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady And Finding
My True Voice, her father had also been abusive.
Her real life was obviously in direct contrast to her TV life, and that caused McCormick
to feel like she was hiding a deep dark secret.
She wrote,
"As a teenager, I had no idea that few people are everything they present to the outside
world.
Yet there I was, hiding the reality of my life behind the unreal perfection of Marcia
Brady."
Fear of infection
Speaking with the Today show, McCormick revealed that her grandmother had gone insane and later
passed away in a mental hospital from syphilis.
Her mother had also contracted the STD while in utero.
"I thought that I had syphilis and that I was gonna die in a mental institution too."
While detailing her life story to Newsweek, the actress said the mere thought of contracting
the highly contagious infection helped her in an usual way while filming The Brady Bunch.
She explained,
"When I was doing those crying scenes in the show, that's what I was thinking about."
Marcia and Jan
McCormick told the Today show that behind the scenes, she and Eve Plumb, who played
Jan Brady, were actually best friends.
Sadly, that all changed when McCormick appeared on a late-night talk show called Vibe and
revealed she had shared a kiss with Plumb — on the cheek — and Plumb was reportedly
ticked off.
McCormick told Today,
"I was having fun, something I was joking with, and [Eve] didn't take it that way."
When asked if there was any chance for a reconciliation, McCormick replied,
"I've reached out to her.
I called her for years and would never get a phone call back.
Finally, after doing that for so long, I thought, she'll call me when she wants to, and hopefully
she will."
Overcoming addiction
In her memoir, McCormick opened up about battling addiction several years after The Brady Bunch
came to an end.
She told People magazine,
"I got into it through a boyfriend, who was friends with people who did stuff.
I have a very addictive personality.
I know that now."
The actress said she soon watched in horror as her vice tore apart those closest to her.
"Well, I remember my father saying that he was going to turn me into the police."
In the end, McCormick went to therapy and relied on her faith to guide her down a path
toward sobriety.
Bulimia battle
Speaking with People magazine, McCormick recalled her 10-year battle with bulimia, which started
after she enrolled into a public high school at the age of 17.
She revealed,
"I was with some girls, we had a gallon of ice cream, and someone mentioned how we could
eat it all and not gain weight.
It seemed ideal.
Once I started [purging], it was hard to stop."
It didn't help that she was required to wear bathing suits for guest appearances on The
Love Boat and Fantasy Island, which she claims made her especially self-conscious.
McCormick finally decided it was time to face her eating disorder by competing on Celebrity
Fit Club.
She ended up winning the competition and losing 38 pounds in a healthy way.
Dark depression
McCormick kicked her severe habit after marrying her husband in 1985, but the side effects
of her substance use threatened to claim her life.
The actress stated in her autobiography that the lingering anxiety and paranoia wreaked
havoc on her life and marriage.
She wrote,
"I walked out on the balcony and screamed that I was going to jump.
I desperately wanted relief and I saw it down below on the pavement."
It took a depression diagnosis and a prescription for antidepressants to help her life do a
complete 180.
Destroying a career
Back in her days of using stuff, McCormick reportedly stayed awake for several days while
on a binge and blew her audition for Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, according
to her memoir.
"I destroyed certain jobs, there were some where I was really high and it was bad.
It was really bad."
Even while filming the The Brady Brides, the actress' substance use was taking control
of her life.
She told Newsweek, "I was supposed to be at Paramount Studios film-testing one of my husbands.
But where was I?
Locked up in my apartment, doing stuff and playing solitaire in my closet."
These days, she's committed to inspiring those who may face the same battles she dealt with.
She told ET, "So many people today are still just incredibly embarrassed about talking
about it as if it's a weakness […] That's what we're all here for on this Earth, right?
To help each other and to talk about our experiences because that's how we all heal and get better."
Well said!
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