Karen Grassle Admits She ‘Separated’ Herself from ‘Little House’ Fans Due to Tension with Costar Michael Landon (Exclusive)

Embracing fan interactions is relatively new for Little House on the Prairie star Karen Grassle, who joined other cast members over the weekend in Simi Valley, CA, to meet fans and reminisce about their days on the Prairie. 

Grassle had a famously contentious relationship with the show’s beloved star, Michael Landon. The problems began in season 2, when Landon denied Grassle a raise. She tells PEOPLE, “I ran myself into the ground with resentment and anger and hurt feelings and just pure exhaustion.”

Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson, tells PEOPLE Landon was “Absolutely a force of nature and could be very strong-willed. And he was the director and producer and star and writer.” 

Regarding the tension between Landon, who passed away in July 1991 of pancreatic cancer, and Grassle, Arngrim adds “I did see that if somebody else was really strong-willed [like Landon]…they would absolutely butt heads, heels would be dug in.”

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Grassle and Landon’s relationship deteriorated from there. Grassle explains in her memoir “Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House’s Ma,” that Landon would make crude, sexist jokes around Grassle and mock her on set.

Grassle understandably distanced herself from her Little House experience for a while after she left the show in season 8. “I had limited my interactions with fans very much. I really didn’t go to many events. I didn’t hang out with everybody. I separated myself,” she tells People. 

It wasn’t until her memoir came out in 2021, nearly 40 years after the show first premiered, that she realized “I’ve got to get out there. So I started with social media and I started going out to these events. I was astonished at what I learned about people’s affection for the character of Caroline.”

Spending time with her fans all these years later was life-changing for Grassle, “I had no idea the depth of affection that people had for this character. It just filled my heart because I worked so hard to make something special out of that character, and there were many days that I did not look forward to going to work.” 

She reflects on the magnitude of Caroline Ingall’s impact on both her life and the lives of her fans 50 years after the show first aired: “What a payoff!… I mean how many people this long after they do a piece of work, get this kind of feedback? Incredible!”

A payoff indeed, that a time in her life stained by grief and frustration has been able to bring her so much love and healing all these years later. Grassle wisely learned to survive the difficult Little House years by being “Grateful for what I had and… stop thinking about what I didn’t have.” 

It is an attitude she retains today at age 83, as she recently rekindled her relationship with artist Robert Gove, the man she first fell in love with over 60 years ago. Telling PEOPLE: “I don’t know that this is the perfect time, but it’s certainly the time that we have left.”

Now she looks forward to the chance to join fellow Little House cast members in meeting fans at reunion events, and even participated in the recent documentary Little House Homecoming, now available to rent or stream at LittleHouseHomecoming.com.