‘Little House on the Prairie’ Star Karen Grassle’s Second Chance Romance At Age 84: ‘We Fell Back In Love’

On Little House on the Prairie, Karen Grassle brought warmth and quiet strength to Caroline “Ma” Ingalls—the steady center of the Ingalls family and a character audiences embraced from the very beginning. But off-screen, Grassle’s own story has been far more complicated—and, in many ways, just as compelling. Now 84, she has found love again, reconnecting with someone from her past decades after they first met.

Though she has largely kept her private life out of the spotlight, Grassle has opened up about her marriages, heartbreaks and second chances. Here’s a closer look at the three men she married—and the love that came back around nearly 60 years later.

Robert Gove

As noted, Karen Grassle has found herself in love with a man she first loved as a teenager, sculptor Robert Gove. The actress and sculptor have reconnected decades later. 

“A few of us were invited to go to Monaco to celebrate the 50th [anniversary of Little House],” she told PEOPLE.  “I looked at a map and I saw that Carrara [Italy] was just down the coast, and I thought, ‘Gosh, well, maybe I could go and visit [him] after all this time’… [A man] I was in love with when I was young. When I first met him, I was only 19 years old and I was just starting my life in the theater. Everything was new and exciting!”

She added that while the couple “lost touch many years ago,” she never forgot him. “It was quite a surprise to find how close we felt when we saw each other. We met up again and we fell back in love,” she added. “This morning I did the final signing for a nice little apartment here in Carrara.”

Grassle plans to live part of her time in the US and part of it in Italy. She shared, “I don’t know that this is the perfect time, but it’s certainly the time that we have left.”

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Leon Russom

In 1966, Grassle tied the knot with her first husband, actor Leon Russom. However, when they decided to wed, their careers weren’t exactly on fire, as both Grassle and Russom were struggling actors, trying to establish themselves. According to the actress’ 2021 memoir, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House’s Ma, the couple decided “to take a leap of faith” and marry. 

However, their union only lasted about four years as they went their separate ways in 1970. But it seems their separation may have been the driving force for both of their careers as Russom booked his starring role in the soap, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing in 1972 while Grassle found herself cast in Little House in 1974. 

James Alan Radford

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Grassle married her second husband, James Alan Radford, in 1982, 12 years after her first marriage ended. While they were married, Grassle and Radford adopted a son, Zachary. “We wanted to have a child and we’d been having some difficulties,” Grassle recalled. “We were on the verge of beginning fertility treatment and started contacting people we knew about adoption. A friend said, ‘You have to call this woman.’ She referred me to her [adoption] attorney [who knew of ] a young woman looking for a couple to adopt her child. It really felt like destiny.”

Unfortunately, even after the adoption, their marriage didn’t last and the two divorced in 1987. But the actress says they have stayed in touch over the years and are friendly with each other. 

Scott T. Sutherland

The actress married her third husband, Dr. Scott T. Sutherland, in 1991. There is very little known about this marriage except that the couple broke up after six years in 1997.