Yesterday, we told you about Maureen McCormick's new book, in which she describes overcoming a lifetime of difficulties in the years since she played perky teen Marcia on The Brady Bunch. This morning, she discussed the details with Meredith Vieira on The Today Show -- and it turns out that things were far, far worse for her than you could have imagined.
While she was playing the "perfect" Marcia Brady, she says, her real life was something of a horror show. "My grandmother died in a mental institution from syphilis, going insane. Her husband committed suicide a week later. My mother contracted syphilis. And I thought that I had syphilis growing up, my whole life, and I thought that I was going to go insane too and be in a mental institution. It was awful.
"When I got off the show, for years I had a huge drug problem with cocaine. And then I was battling depression in my adult years for a long time."
Not only was she dealing with the syphilis issue -- it eventually turned out she didn't have it herself -- but while McCormick was filming the show, she found out that her dad had cheated on her mom. "You have to go into work and perform every day," Vieira reminds her. "You talk about that episode where Marcia has her braces put on and she's crying because she doesn't feel good about herself. What people don't know is that those were real tears."
McCormick's high school years and beyond brought on drug abuse, bulimia, abortions and depression. She missed her audition for The Brady Brides, she says, because she had been up for three days doing drugs and was hiding in her closet, playing Solitaire. When she finally agreed to get help, she was treated by Brian Wilson's kooky shrink Dr. Eugene Landy, who, she says, was "awful."
While she seems to have her life together now, it obviously wasn't easy. "I'm surprised that I'm still alive," she adds.
As for all the dopey fanboy questions we really don't care that much about anymore? While the show was going on, teenage Maureen was about to lose her virginity to fictional brother Barry "Greg" Williams, but his parents came home and it didn't happen. And she's still close with all the living Brady actors except Eve Plumb, who's apparently mad because McCormick once joked on another talk show that the two of them had kissed. (And that would be a bad thing?)
Whether you find all this inspirational, or a crushing of your fondest childhood memories, you'll definitely want to view the complete video here.
Previously:
Marcia, Marcia... Marcia?