The Real-Life Couples of the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Cast: Love Stories Beyond Plum Creek

One of the most popular family dramas in television history remains the Little House on the Prairie TV series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books of the same name. Brought to life by actors like Michael Landon, Karen Grassle and Melissa Gilbert, the show ran from 1974 to 1983 and chronicled the life and times of the Ingalls family, their joys, struggles and sometimes tragedies living on a Plum Creek farm near Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

Over the course of its nine seasons, television viewers fell in love with the characters and the actors who portrayed them, with cast members for the most part growing incredibly close (although there was apparently no love lost between Landon and Grassle). And while there were rumors of teen romance here and there, there was only one full-blown romance to emerge from the show (details below), which raises the question of what happened to the actors when the “Ingalls” went their separate ways, particularly in terms of who they ended up with over the near-40 years since the show ended.

Meet the real-life couples of Little House on the Prairie below.

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Inside the Love Lives of the Original 'Star Wars' Cast

A long time ago (1977) in a galaxy not so far away (local movie theaters), a seismic shift happened that reshaped the moviegoing experience, merchandise tie-ins, the pop culture world as a whole and most certainly the lives of the people at the center of the original Star Wars trilogy: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and […]

Michael Landon and Dodie Levy-Fraser

Michael Landon was married three times over his lifetime. His first marriage was to Dodie Levy-Fraser, who he wed in 1956, which was early in his acting career. Not an actress herself, there isn’t a lot known about her or them as a couple, beyond the fact that she had a son from a previous marriage, who Michael adopted, officially naming the boy Michael Fraser Landon. They also adopted an infant son they named Josh Fraser Landon.

The photo above was taken in 1960. Michael and Dodie would get divorced two years later.

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Meet the Real-Life Couples of the Original ‘Star Trek’ Cast

Anyone who’s seen the original Star Trek is well aware that Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, has a reputation with the ladies that stretches from one end of the galaxy to the other, and that Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, has had a few romantic liaisons of his own, but what about the […]

Michael Landon and Marjorie Lynn Noe

In 1963, Michael married Marjorie Lynn Noe, who he had met on the set of his first television series, Bonanza, on which he played Little Joe Cartwright. They were together until 1980, at which point they divorced, with his stating he had fallen out of love with her.

During those years they’d had four children together: Leslie Landon, born in 1962; Michael Landon Jr., born in 1964; Shawn Landon, born in 1971; and Christopher Landon, born 1975.

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Real-Life Couples of 'Happy Days': See Who the Cast Dated and Married Off-Screen!

Happy Days was one of the biggest comedy hits on TV in the 1970s, not only tapping into that decade’s obsession with ’50s nostalgia, but capturing the hearts and imaginations of millions of viewers during its 11 season run between 1974 and 1984. It featured beloved characters that were invited into their homes week after week, […]

1976

Michael Landon with Marjorie and their children attend the 45th annual Hollywood Santa Claus Lane Parade on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on November 28, 1976.

Michael Landon and Cindy Clerico

Michael Landon’s final marriage was to Little House makeup artist Cindy Clerico, who he was wed to from 1983 until the time of his death in 1991.

Given his reputation as a family man and the type of television programming he produced, Michael received a great deal of backlash for having seemingly ended one marriage to engage in a new relationship. The couple weathered this and, despite an 18-year age gap between them, had two children together: Jennifer, born 1983; and Sean, born 1986.

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Meet the Real-Life Partners and Spouses from the 'Blue Bloods' Cast

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Original caption for the photo above: “Malibu, California—Actor-producer Michael Landon and Cindy Clerico were married today in an afternoon ceremony conducted in his Malibu, California home. Judge Ray Cardenes performed the ceremonies, which were attended by thirty friends and family members, including his four children by his second marriage. A reception for more than three hundred friends followed the wedding at a Malibu Restaurant. Photo shows the Landons posing after the ceremony.”

Karen Grassle Was Married Three Times

Karen Grassle, who played Ingells matriarch Caroline, was married three times. While she kept her private life pretty much that, we do know that she had been wed to actor Leon Russom from 1966 until their divorce in 1970; which was followed by James Allen Radford from 1982 to 1987 and Dr. Scott Sutherland from 1991 to 1997. The actress struggled for many years with alcoholism, though it’s not clear what impact that may have had on those marriages.

Melissa Gilbert and Bo Brinkman

Melissa Gilbert’s first marriage was to actor Bo Brinkman, the two of them together from 1988 to 1994. In the photo above, the couple attend the Hooray for Hollywood AIDS Benefit, which was held at Bloomingdale’s in New York City on April 5, 1988.

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Real-Life Couples of 'The Partridge Family': See Which Cast Members Dated and Who They Married

C’mon, get happy! Which is certainly easy to do when you think about The Partridge Family, the ’70s sitcom that brought us TV’s most successful musical family and turned its cast — including Susan Dey, Danny Bonaduce and, especially, David Cassidy — into teen idols, while bringing along screen legend Shirley Jones as matriarch Shirley […]

Melissa Gilbert and Bruce Boxleitner

Following her 1994 divorce from Bo Brinkman, Melissa Gilbert married actor Bruce Boxleitner in 1995 and was with him until their divorce in 2011. This photo was taken when they were in midtown Manhattan on March 16, 1994.

2005

Original caption: Actress/SAG President Melissa Gilbert with her husband actor Bruce Boxleitner attend the 84th Annual Hollywood Chamber Installation Luncheon Honoring Melissa Gilbert at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel on April 28, 2005 in Hollywood, California.

2010

Bruce Boxleitner and Melissa Gilbert arrive at the World Premiere of Tron: Legacy at the El Capitan Theatre on December 11, 2010 in Hollywood, California.

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Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield

Since 2013, Melissa Gilbert has been married to actor Timothy Busfield (best known for his roles in Thirtysomething and The West Wing). This photo shows the couple participating in the Los Angeles Mission Christmas Eve lunch For The Homeless held at the Los Angeles Mission on December 24, 2012.

2019

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield speak at a screening of Guest Artist during the 34th Santa Barbara International Film Festival at the Fiesta Theatre on February 9, 2019 in Santa Barbara, California.

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'The Honeymooners' TV Show Cast: Meet the Spouses of Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Their TV Wives

Generations of television viewers know The Honeymooners best for the “classic 39” episodes of the show that originally aired during the 1955 to 1956 television season and have been rerun ever since. Although presented before and after as skits as part of The Jackie Gleason Show, those sitcom versions became the ones that most people remember Brooklyn […]

2023

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield pose during a photocall for the Golden Nymph Awards ceremony of the 62nd Monte-Carlo Television Festival in the principality of Monaco on June 20, 2023.

Melisa Sue Anderson and Michael Sloan

Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary Ingalls) married Michael Sloan and has been with him ever since, the two of them parenting two children. Here they’re seen in 1986.

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Real-Life Couples From 'The Brady Bunch': Who Got Together Behind-the-Scenes?

Let’s face it: The Brady Bunch was a squeaky-clean TV series that introduced the world to the Brady family. Maybe that’s what made that moment in the 1996 film A Very Brady Sequel, in which Greg and Marcia Brady suddenly realize that they’re not blood-related, making it okay if they … sort of … you […]

1993

Melissa Sue Anderson and Michael Sloan at the 11th Annual Golden Boot Awards on August 21, 1993 at Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

Sidney and Lindsay Greenbush

Rachel Lindsay Rene Bush and Sidney Robyn Danae Bush, who alternated the role as Carrie Ingalls on Little House. In 2000, Sidney married William Foster (who went by the nickname of “Rocky”), a horse breeder. Tragically, he died at age 55 in 2009.

For her part, Lindsay has been married to Daniel Sanchez since 2014. They first met while she was shooting the series on location; he was a teenager and she was a child. A couple of decades later they met again and fell in love, deciding to get married at the Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, which was the location that Little House shot its exteriors on.

Alison Arngrim and Robert Paul Schoonover

Best recognized for her role as Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie, Alison Arngrim was married twice, first to Donald Spencer in 1989, but their union was a short one, the duo divorcing in 1993. But that same year she married musician Robert Paul Schoonover, who she’s been with ever since.

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They met while volunteering at AIDS Project Los Angeles, where he was the director of the Southern California AIDS Hotline. This photo was taken on their wedding day, November 6, 1993.

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See 'The Addams Family' Cast Young: Carolyn Jones, John Astin and More Before Life on Cemetery Lane

In 1938, cartoonist Charles Addams couldn’t have imagined how his life would be impacted when he began drawing his macabrely funny, single-panel The Addams Family comics for The New Yorker. Or how those same comics would, nearly three decades later, similarly intertwine with and impact the lives of an ensemble of actors — Carolyn Jones, […]

2008

Alison Arngrim and her husband Bob Schoonover arrive at Gaydar Gun Launch Party at Here Lounge on November 19, 2008 in West Hollywood, California.