Melissa Gilbert Had The Horrible Feeling Her Face Was No Longer Her Own Before Stopping Botox & Fillers

Dec 13, 2023

Melissa Gilbert is a woman of many talents. She is best known for her work as an actress, television director, producer and politician. On top of that, she was also once the president of the Screen Actors Guild.

On May 8, 1964, Gilbert was born to a couple who gave her up for adoption immediately after she was born. She was adopted by actor Paul Gilbert and his wife, Barbara Crane, just one day later. They later adopted a son named Jonathan Gilbert.

With such a talented set of parents, it’s no surprise that Gilbert and her brother went on to find themselves working in the entertainment industry. Gilbert began making a name for herself at a very young age and had a stable career as a child actress in the late 1960s. She started off by appearing in several commercials and obtaining guest-starring roles on television shows.

Gilbert got her big break when she starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder in the series “Little House on the Prairie.” The series, which also starred her brother, had a successful run, airing from 1974 to 1982, with a sequel series generated shortly after. The actress continued to find work in the acting department, mostly appearing in television films. She has also released a few memoirs that detail her life experiences.

Nowadays, Gilbert is 58 years old and has chosen to live a much simpler life than others in Hollywood. She has encountered some hardships along the way but has overcome them with plenty of positivity and grace. Among those challenges that she faced were having botox, fillers, and implants at an early age, which she has since regretted. Read on to learn more about Gilbert and her life-changing decision to step away from having any more alterations on her body. 

"Little House on the Prairie" was a very successful TV series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" book series. "It was like a really great summer camp, but I also got to play the ultimate game of dress-up," Gilbert told CBS Sunday Morning as she reminisced on her time on the series. "I don't remember it ever not being fun."

While the show had a great focus on family, it also touched on heavier topics — something that Gilbert could relate to. "I tell people I do not have a family tree; I have a family shrub,” Gilbert said.

While she saw recognition for her talents on screen, Gilbert struggled in her personal life, battling substance abuse, unfaithful boyfriends, and medical complications. However, looking back on her hardships, Gilbert said, "Everything, no matter how painful, led me to this place I am right now, which is really an amazing place to be." 

Gilbert has had personal troubles but has found a happy home life. She is married to Timothy Busfield. On finally connecting with someone she feels she's meant to be with, Gilbert said, "The depth of understanding, compassion, and kindness in this man blows me away. And oh, how we laugh! How blessed I am. How grateful."

The couple truly shed Hollywood life and moved into deep woods, taking on their cabin-turned-dream-home in New York State. Gilbert said, "I feel really good about where I am in my life right now… I've found this incredible stillness and peace in my life, in my home upstate, and in myself."

The actress told ABC that she “had to get out of Los Angeles to actually age” – something she “wanted to do.”

Prior to this, Gilbert had relied heavily on Botox. Her book, “Back to the Prairie,” explained how she was “injected, augmented, and veneered, and doing everything right for an actress closing in on 50 trying to maintain a career …”

Speaking with PEOPLE in May 2022, Gilbert said, "I grew up in an industry that values the outside considerably more than the inside, and I was caught in that wheel of trying to stay young.”

She explained how she got Botox, fillers and plastic surgery until she finally realized enough was enough.

"I finally woke up and went, 'What am I doing? I look like a carrot top, and I'm not happy,'" Gilbert said. "My mindset was, 'You have to stay thin. You have to be seen in the right places, wear the right shoes and drive the right car.' That was so drilled into me by all the outside forces. But it never sat right."

The actress continued, “I cut off all my hair and quit doing Botox and all that stuff.” PEOPLE reported she also had her breast plants removed in 2015. In her book, Gilbert said that she had also previously had a nose job and dyed her hair.

Despite all of the pressure Hollywood puts on actresses, Gilbert is now aging naturally and gracefully. She shared:

“No fillers or Botox, no implants, no hair color. Just me. This is happy. This is healthy. This is strong. This is rooted. This is confident. This is a woman who has earned her opinions. This is quiet, still, and at peace … finally.”

Elaborating more on her experience, Gilbert shared with USA Today how the experience of aging has impacted significantly on how she perceived the changes in her body. While Gilbert was proud of how hardworking she was, she noticed a huge difference in herself. 

“Frankly, I looked like every woman over 40 in Los Angeles. We all have the same cheeks, the same brows, the same lips. So, my face looked great, only it wasn’t my face,” she realized. 

More so, Gilbert told the publication that she doesn’t have any products in her household that promote “anti-aging.” 

“It makes me crazy to say ‘anti-aging,’ because that would mean dead,” she pointed out. “You know, we’re all aging from the moment we’re born, and you can stay healthy, stay hydrated and do good things for the body, but fighting something that’s inevitable is a losing battle.”

Eventually, something dawned on her. She realized that these changes she had on her body had finally taken a toll. 

“It took me out of the space of being the person I am. It forced me into being something that other people wanted me to be, which I spent a lot of my life doing,” she added. “I just wanted to find a way to be in a place to embrace myself and my life and not wish I was something else anymore.”

Because of this, she stopped getting Botox and fillers, let her hair grey, and had her breast implants removed. 

“These things were a life changer,” she concluded. “It meant I could explore all of the things in my life I hadn’t done before. It felt like freedom.” 

Are you a fan of Melissa Gilbert? What can you say about her self-realization journey towards embracing aging and regretting the surgeries and procedures she had done in the past? Do you know someone who also had a similar experience? Let us know, and pass this on to your family, friends, and other loved ones out there!