Melissa Gilbert Reflects on ‘Tumultuous’ Relationship with Rob Lowe

Melissa Gilbert is opening up what caused her six-year relationship with Rob Lowe to be “very tumultuous.”

On the latest episode of the I Choose Me podcast, the Little House on the Prairie star, 61, and host Jennie Garth reflected on both experiencing their “earliest relationships in the spotlight.”

When asked what she learned about herself from her relationship with Lowe — who she dated from 1981 to 1987 — Gilbert shared, “I guess looking back on those six years, I mean, I was such a baby when Rob and I were together. I was 17 and we broke up for the last time when we were 23 and it was very tumultuous.”

For Gilbert, a relationship in the limelight — which only increased following Lowe’s breakout role in The Outsiders in 1983 — came with some unexpected challenges.

“I felt like a bit of an old sage in the business at that point because I’d been doing it for so long,” she admitted. “And I was still on Little House on the Prairie when we met, and it had already been years, and he was sort of starting out. He’d done a little bit of television. And so I was able to sort of sit back and watch this meteoric rise happen.” 

“I don’t think I was prepared for the stuff that came with it, necessarily,” she continued. “I was prepared for all of having to go to premieres and things and award shows and all of that, but I wasn’t prepared for the fandom and frankly, the girls.”

Initially she thought of other girls as her “sisters,” but she quickly learned her lesson.

“I always thought that every girl and woman was my sister. We’re sisters, but it was not evident at all when Rob and I were a couple,” she recalled. “I mean, it was like I didn’t exist. They just pushed right past me and stick phone numbers in his pockets and stuff.” 

“To say it was disconcerting is doing it a big disservice,” she continued of the relationship, which came to an end in 1987. “It was hard and horrible. I think I learned a lot about what didn’t work for me, actually, and what I wouldn’t stand for later on.” 

Admitting that the lessons were painful, she also shared that the pair shared good times together.

“They hurt. They’re hard because they usually are born of heartbreak and angst, but those are really valuable and important lessons… We had some really, really, really fun times,” she said. 

However, she is grateful for her life now, saying, “But in looking back, I look at the way my life is so easeful now and I look at it back then, and I feel like my shoulders were always up by my ears, always waiting for the next shoe to drop or something bad to happen or some, I don’t know, something untoward or gross.” 

Gilbert went on to marry Bo Brinkman in 1988 to 1994 before she tied the knot with Bruce Boxleitner the following year. Their union came to an end in 2011. The actress and Timothy Busfield have been married since 2013.

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As for Lowe, he and wife Sheryl wed in 1991 and share two sons, Matthew and John Owen.