Maureen McCormick speaks out about her troubled life after 'The Brady Bunch'
Image: ABC via YouTube
Being a child star is a blessing and a curse. Intense fame at a young age comes with copious amounts of attention and responsibility. A lot of actors eventually find out the hard way they can't handle it, with many turning to drugs to deal with the stress.
Other times, the intense fame subsides when child stars hit adulthood, and they struggle to maintain the same caliber of success.
Maureen McCormick knows the struggle all too well. Recently, she's been a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. On Monday night's episode, McCormick used the show as a platform to open up about the perils of fame at such a young age and her turbulent life after The Brady Bunch wrapped in 1974.
The contestants had to dedicate a dance to their most memorable year. McCormick chose 1985 because that's when she married her husband, Michael Cummings. To get to that point, however, McCormick explains she went through years of emotional and physical turmoil.
ABC via YouTube"For years in my personal life, I felt like I had to play Marcia Brady," McCormick revealed.
Costars Florence Henderson and Christopher Knight also weighed in on what the former child star went through once she was no longer Marcia Brady.
Henderson said McCormick, like many child stars, had a rough time finding her way after all the success of The Brady Bunch. That's when her life took a turn for the worse.
"She got into the rock & roll crowd, the music crowd, and it just consumed her," Knight said.
"Drugs were everywhere," McCormick admitted. "I lost all control. I did things I'm not proud of at all."
Luckily, McCormick met Cummings right after coming out of what she calls "a heavy five-year addiction to cocaine." She credits him with saving her from rock bottom and helping her move on with her life.
Since the couple married in 1985, McCormick has guest starred on various television shows, participated in reality competitions and even wrote an autobiography in 2008 called Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice.
"I'm extremely proud of Maureen because I know how tough it's been for her," Henderson said.
McCormick knows she's lucky to make it out of child stardom unscathed.
"I would definitely not be here without my husband."