‘Little House on the Prairie’ star Melissa Gilbert says her birth father knew her identity after watching show

After Melissa Gilbert’s biological father saw her on television, he knew that the young actress was his child.

The former child star, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder in “Little House on the Prairie,” recently appeared on her co-star Patrick Labyorteaux’s podcast, “The Patrick LabyorSheaux.” She described what it was like getting in contact with her birth father after she welcomed her son Dakota in 1989.

“I didn’t tell him who I was, and then he asked me, ‘Well, who are you? What do you do?’” Gilbert recalled.

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Melissa Gilbert starred as Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder in “Little House on the Prairie.” (Ted Shepherd/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)

“And I said, ‘Well, here’s the thing… Did you ever watch ‘Little House on the Prairie?’ And he said, ‘You’re Laura, aren’t you? I knew it.’ He knew it.”

“He could see,” the 61-year-old shared. “And when I met my half-siblings, we all looked alike. So you could definitely see it… It’s pretty clear.”

Labyorteaux, who was also adopted, said he had a similar experience. Like Gilbert, his birth mother died before he was able to find her.

Patrick Labyorteaux as Andrew “Andy” Garvey in “Little House on the Prairie.” (Ted Shepherd/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)

“I never met her, but I met her family, who was a stepfamily,” the actor explained. “She had three kids that she had inherited from the husband that she married. So, she had three kids, but they weren’t her biological kids. She only had one biological kid… They would watch ‘Little House’ and when I would show up… because of my eyes, they would go, ‘Oh, that’s probably your kid.’ And they would make fun of her like that… They were right.”

Gilbert was adopted by actors Barbara Cowan and Paul Gilbert. Her biological parents were also in entertainment. According to the star, her birth mother was an exotic dancer and her father was a stock car racer and musician.

“It was pretty clear that it was in me,” said Gilbert on pursuing showbiz. “… All the kids are performers on both sides of that family. So it was genetic and environmental.”

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Melissa Gilbert spoke about reconnecting with her birth parents on Patrick Labyorteaux’s podcast, “The Patrick LabyorScheaux.” (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

“They were each married to other people and had three children each and ran off together and conceived me on a motorcycle trip in the desert,” she said. “Explains a lot. And then they left their spouses for each other and got married after [getting] pregnant with me and moved all the kids in, so I was number seven. So, the decision was made to put me up for adoption.”

Melissa Gilbert described the set of “Little House on the Prairie” as a nurturing set for all the child actors. Michael Landon himself was a father to nine children. (Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)

As Gilbert got older, she yearned to discover her roots.

“When I saw [my son Dakota] for the first time, I went, ‘Oh my God, he had my eyebrows, and he had my lips, and I’ve never seen anyone that looked like me,’” said Gilbert. “And then I realized there’s got to be more.”

After becoming a mom, Melissa Gilbert wanted to learn more about her roots. (Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

Her family background wasn’t the only thing that Gilbert faced after “Little House” came to an end.

In the podcast, she described how, as an adult, many fans still expected her to be Laura Ingalls.

“It was weird,” Gilbert admitted. “I think people still, almost into my 40s, always kind of half expected a 12-year-old to come in with a fishing pole [and in] gingham. And that, at that time, to me, felt like a weakness.”

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Melissa Gilbert said that even as an adult, some fans still saw her as her character Laura Ingalls. (NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)

Gilbert said it was a “shock factor” when people realized that she was “a full-grown adult with opinions and ideas that are smart and work.”

For her, it was important to have an identity outside of Hollywood.

“[As child actors] we either grow up super sheltered and don’t know how to do things like wash dishes, or [be] super overexposed and exploited,” she said.

Gilbert added that the second group are the ones that end up struggling with “the big problems.”

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So at age 22, she moved to New York City to appear in an Off-Broadway play. 

“There I was at 22, living on my own with my cat and my dog in New York City, and completely unprepared to live on my own entirely. Completely,” she said.

“… I had to figure out how to do so much stuff that I had no clue about,” she shared. “Like, I didn’t realize that you could break a $100 bill at a bodega, and you didn’t have to go to a bank. It’s little things like that… At one point, [I] let the dishes pile up in my sink so bad, and I didn’t have a dishwasher, so I threw them out and bought new dishes. On my $700 a week salary at that point.”

As an adult, Melissa Gilbert went under the knife. But once she left Los Angeles, the actress felt she was able to age gracefully. (Reuters)

Still, Gilbert had fond memories of growing up on the set of “Little House.”

“Our set was as kid-friendly as a set could be at that time,” she said. “Even with all the adult shenanigans going on, we were sort of protected from a lot of that. I didn’t know half the stuff that the grown-ups were doing until they started writing books about it.”

Back in 2024, Gilbert told Fox News Digital she had to eventually leave Los Angeles to age gracefully.

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Melissa Gilbert as Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (left) and Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson. (NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)

“I looked at myself in the mirror several years back,” the 61-year-old recalled at the time. “I was living in Los Angeles, and I did not recognize who I was. I had overfilled my face and my lips. My forehead didn’t move. I was still dyeing my hair red. I was driving a Mustang convertible. I was a size two in an unhealthy way. I looked like a frozen version of my younger self, and that’s not who I was.”

Melissa Gilbert pictured in 2012. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

“I was stuck,” Gilbert admitted. “I could feel myself fighting it. And I said to myself, ‘It’s time to age.’ I had to leave Los Angeles to do that – not Hollywood – Los Angeles specifically.”

Gilbert said she and her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, moved to his home state of Michigan following their wedding in 2013.

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield married in 2013. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

They lived there for five years. She felt free to finally age.

“I stopped coloring my hair,” she explained. “I had [my] breast implants removed. I decided to just be the best, healthiest version of myself without this pressure to look a certain way, and it paid off in a huge way.”

Melissa Gilbert said she feels free in her skin. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

“I finally found my feet as a woman, fully, 100 percent strong in my own knowledge, in my own accomplishments. Everything got easier. And a bonus? I have a lot more free time not staring in a mirror, sitting in a dermatologist’s chair, or sitting in a hair chair.”

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Melissa Gilbert, seen here with co-star Dean Butler, said she still has fond memories of bringing the beloved classic series to life. ( NBC Television/Courtesy of Getty Images)

In 2019, Gilbert and Busfield purchased a rustic cottage on 14 acres in the Catskill Mountains. Life today is “incredibly fulfilling,” she said.

“It’s remarkable,” Gilbert gushed. “I love being this age. There are things about it that are not a lot of fun. I don’t like it when my ankles ache in the morning or my skin’s drier. Aging is not for sissies, but it is certainly better than the alternative. And I’ve never felt better in my skin.”