“I didn’t want my kids to grow up around a parent who’s being stopped and asked for photographs all the time. They’ve been able to grow up being the stars of the household.”
Melissa Sue Anderson, known for playing Mary Ingalls in the “Little House on the Prairie,” for many reasons wanted a big family and a nice lovable husband when she was a teen. Although she did not have as many kids, she took drastic measures to ensure they had her full attention.
Former child star Melissa Sue Anderson once revealed she would like to have a big family, saying: “I’d like to have four to six kids – I like big families.”
When it came to what she looked for in a man, she kept it general while pointing out the possible characteristics she would go for to find one.
“What do I look for in a man? What everybody else wants, I guess – someone nice and lovable,” said the Canadian American actress.
Here are further details of Anderson’s husband and children whom she did not want to raise, similar to how Michael Landon raised his kids.
HOW MELISSA MARRIED HER OLDER HUSBAND
Before she met her now-husband Michael Sloan, Anderson was dating Frank Sinatra Jr., whom she met while appearing on “The Love Boat” in 1979 (he was 37 and she, 17). The California native described their relationship:
“It was exciting. But it was never really wild. That’s just not me.”
Following her stint on “Little House,” Anderson got cast in “umpteen Movies of the Week,” including T.V. programs such as 1987’s “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” on which she met her future spouse, Sloan.
He was the show’s executive producer during that period, and the couple was married three years later. Anderson began turning down roles after that.
Born in October 1946 in New York City, 76-year-old Sloan wed the lovely Anderson, his wife of over three decades, on March 17, 1990.
Apart from “Hitchock,” he also produced and wrote, “The Equalizer” (2014) and “The Equalizer 2” (2018), including “Quincy M.E.” (1976).
He also created the “The Equalizer,” T.V. series starring actor Edward Woodward, where Anderson played a role as Woodward’s daughter.
She later described her fellow co-star, saying he was a good friend and that after her wedding with Sloan, the following Saturday, they had a blessing in England, and Edward walked her down the aisle.
Anderson retired from showbiz at age 35, happily married; she lived contentedly in Southern California’s quiet Topanga Canyon with her then-51-year-old spouse and their family.
The couple welcomed two children, Griffin and Piper, within their marriage. Their eldest child, daughter Piper, 32, arrived in February 1991, and their second child, son Griffin in June 1996.
Speaking about her retirement at the time, Anderson said she enjoyed living an everyday life away from the prying eyes of Hollywood and that it felt good to get to know herself without the acting as part of her life:
“It’s nice just being a regular person. It’s good to get to know what I’m like without the acting.”
After a twelve-year hiatus from Hollywood, Anderson, 60, shared that long before she had kids, she instinctively knew she would not be able to juggle her career and raising her children:
“I didn’t want my kids to grow up around a parent who’s being stopped and asked for photographs all the time. They’ve been able to grow up being the stars of the household.”
In an interview once, the mom of two used Landon as an example when it came to his kids living in the spotlight and how...
