The Tragic Life of The Women Who Played Marcia Brady

Maureen McCormick is known for playing Marcia Brady in The Brady Bunch. McCormick played the eldest daughter of a blended family. She starred as Marcia from the age of 12 until 17. Millions of TV viewers saw her live out her formative years. After the show ended in 1974, there were spin-off series and made-for-TV movies, including The Brady Girls Get Married, The Brady Brides, and A Very Brady Christmas. McCormick kept playing her bubbly, fresh-faced character, but no one knew her real life was chaotic. She struggled with drug abuse, an eating disorder, and depression. Her upbringing and adult life were far more complex than any episode of The Brady Bunch. As the youngest of four, McCormick suffered from anxiety. Her real life was very different from her TV life. McCormick felt like she was hiding something. In 2010, McCormick told Today that her grandmother had gone insane and died in a mental hospital from syphilis. Her mother also got the STD while she was pregnant. In an interview with Newsweek, the actress said the thought of getting the infection helped her while filming The Brady Bunch. McCormick's mother died of kidney cancer in 2004. The actress told TV Guide, "My mother had been sick for a couple of years, and I had never lost anyone close to me until she died." Her mother's death led McCormick to take a destructive path. In her autobiography, Maureen McCormick says she went from playing Marcia Brady to being a drug addict who freebased cocaine. She told Entertainment Tonight that she was still using drugs when she met her husband, actor Michael Cummings. McCormick's battle with bulimia began when she was 17. After her mother died in 2004, McCormick had to decide whether to put her disabled brother, Denny, in a group home. She gained 30 pounds because she was eating and sleeping a lot. McCormick stopped taking cocaine after marrying Cummings in 1985, but the drugs had damaged her health. A depression diagnosis and antidepressants helped her turn her life around. Even after overcoming her cocaine addiction, McCormick's husband said she developed a dependency on Prozac. She kicked this before appearing on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here in 2015. The actress said that therapy and faith helped her get sober. Today, McCormick helps people dealing with the same issues she did. "If you have an addiction, it's a disease, and you shouldn't be ashamed," she said. "Many people are still embarrassed to talk about it as if it's a weakness. That's why we're here. "We help each other and talk about our experiences to heal and get better." Amen.