But things weren’t always smooth between the actors, and one major incident caused a lasting rift between Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon.
It all started when the young star discovered news that would forever change how she saw Landon. Landon, while married to his second wife Marjorie Lynn Noe, began an on-set affair with a much-younger woman, Little House‘s makeup artist and stand-in Cindy Clerico.
Gilbert recalls noticing how close Landon and Clerico were becoming on set, but dismissed the thought, refusing to think Landon would cheat on his wife.
“It was nothing untoward; they weren’t ever in a closed-off room, not that I saw,” she wrote in her memoir. “But Mike would walk around holding her puppy, and she was a pretty young thing who wore stylish tight jeans, leotards, and high-heel boots.”
Soon, the cast, including Gilbert, discovered the affair and were devastated by the actions of the actor they had looked up to as a father figure.
