Melissa Gilbert said she felt “nauseated” after looking back at her childhood with a fresh pair of eyes.
After media personality Megyn Kelly seemingly downplayed Jeffrey Epstein’s predatory behavior, 61-year-old Melissa said she re-examined her own teenage years and how she was romantically paired with a grown man for the script of Little House on the Prairie.
She said the age difference between her and her onscreen husband was unsettling.
Melissa Gilbert said she felt “nauseated” after looking back at her childhood with fresh eyes
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For millions of viewers, Little House on the Prairie was a wholesome family TV show.
But for Melissa Gilbert, the NBC show that ran from 1974 to 1983 was an intrinsic part of her childhood.
The child star took on the role of Laura Ingalls Wilder at the age of 10 and played the character for all nine seasons of the show.
She was only 15 when Dean Butler, eight years her senior, was cast to play her on-screen love interest Almanzo Wilder.
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Melissa and Dean’s onscreen chemistry became a defining part of Little House on the Prairie’s later seasons.
But behind the scenes, the actress was still a teenager acting opposite a fully grown adult, aged 23 at the time.
The former child star said she is now looking at the scenario with a fresh perspective after hearing Megyn Kelly’s comments about Jeffrey Epstein preying on 15-year-old girls.
“So, I debated posting this but, I feel compelled to share. After seeing many women’s posts with the hashtags #iwasfifteen #imfifteen #iwasachild, I decided to Google search myself at that age and see what came up,” she said, sharing pictures of herself as a 15-year-old girl.
“And this is some of what I found…and now, at this age, at this time, I am actually nauseated,” she continued.
The former child star found it unsettling that she had an onscreen romance with a 23-year-old man when she was just 15 years old
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The actress spoke about how she was expected to “fall in love” and “kiss a man” who was “several years older” for the camera.
“Through the lens of today, this is shocking. I have no words other than to say, ‘I WAS A CHILD.’ ‘I WAS FIFTEEN.’ And I was the good news,” she said.
She gave credit to her mother and her co-star, Michael Landon (her on-screen father), and “so many others” for making sure she “was safe.”
“Can you imagine if I hadn’t had them all? I am so fortunate (Sort of). Many other young women aren’t. @megynkelly you need to be careful with your words,” she concluded.
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Melissa’s comments were a response to Megyn’s remarks about Jeffrey Epstein’s behavior with underage victims.
The right-wing media personality claimed a source close to the case told her that the convicted offender “was not a ped*phile.”
“He was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” Megyn said on a November 12 episode of her Sirius XM program The Megyn Kelly Show.
Melissa’s comments were a response to Megyn Kelly seemingly downplaying Jeffrey Epstein’s predatory behavior
“And I realize this is disgusting. I’m definitely not trying to make an excuse for this. I’m just giving you facts, that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds.,” she continued. “But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passerby.”
“There’s a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old, you know?” she added.
“He was into the barely legal type. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” the right-wing media personality said on The Megyn Kelly Show
Image credits: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Her comments sparked outrage online, with netizens criticizing her and sharing pictures of their 15-year-old selves with the hashtag #iWasFifteen.
“This picture was taken in 1975. I’m 15. I’m a child,” actress Valerie Bertinelli wrote online alongside a black and white picture from her teen years.
“I’m gonna say this a little louder for those in the back row. I’m FIFTEEN. I’M A CHILD,” the actress continued.
“It doesn’t matter that I got a job. It doesn’t matter what I was doing. I was a child,” she added. “Maybe we should flood the Internet with pictures of all of us at 15? #imfifteen #imachild.”
Valerie made no mention of Megyn and did not confirm whether her post was in response to the conservative commentator’s remarks.
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Comedian John Oliver slammed Megyn’s comments on an episode of Last Week Tonight.
“Because if I am understanding you there — and I am definitely not — Epstein wasn’t into eight-year-olds. He was just into very young teens who could pass for even younger while also to passers-by still somehow managing to look legal,” he said on the November 16 episode of the show. “And you felt this was an important legal distinction to bring up to your ‘Yes, and’-ing friend here.”
“I am clearly no stranger to sharing upsetting numbers with my audience, but please do k*ll me if I ever start doing ped*phile math,” he added.
Actor Dean Butler addressed the age-gap between him and Melissa and having “anxiety” about their onscreen kiss
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Last year, actor Dean Butler shared his thoughts about having his first on-screen kiss with Melissa when she was 15 and he was 23.
“I think that there was anxiety on both sides of that kiss and how is this going to go? But we stepped up to it,” he told People.
Image credits: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal
“I’ve often said to Melissa, ‘I wish we could have been a little closer in age when we were doing this.’ But that’s not the way it really happened,” he said. “Laura was 10 years younger than Almanzo.”
“But from the perspective of playing it, I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could have [had] … a little more common ground, so we would’ve been able to play the loving side of this in perhaps a little bit more interesting way,” he added.