WALTONS DAD SAVED ME FROM BOOZE HELL!
Michael Learned & TV hubby Ralph hit the bottle behind scenes at family drama
RALPH WAITE and Michael Learned played the rocksolid parents on the heartwarming family series The Waltons — but on the 50th anniversary of the TV show’s debut, Learned reveals they were both drunks off camera until he got her clean and sober!
“More than once, Ralph and I would go out for lunch and we would drink,” the 83-yearold actress tells The National ENQUIRER in an exclusive interview.
She recalls suffering from a devastating drinking problem before and well into her years on the iconic series, which was a staple on TV for nine years, from 1972 to 1981.
“I was going through a divorce,” remembers Michael. “Drinking too much. And I came down to L.A. full of fear because I’d been married since I was 17!”
Now she admits it was Ralph — who had conquered his own drinking demons and passed away in 2014 at 85 — who first made her realize she was marching down a certain path to selfdestruction!
“One of his daughters had died from leukemia when she was only nine, and his first marriage ended in divorce a couple of years before we launched the show, and it led him into some heavy drinking — which ran counter to his own responsible image,” says Michael.
“I was a caring, responsible father to all of these kids on the show, but I was a drunk on the side,” Ralph once admitted in an interview.
Learned says the nagging need to live up to his squeakyclean TV image pushed Waite to get sober — and to help her do the same!
“He told me I needed to get away from the temptations of booze and take myself out of that environment until I knew I had it beat,” she remembers, adding that Ralph also told her she needed to get herself to Alcoholics Anonymous — WITH him — because she needed the support!
“He told me, ‘I’ll go and be supportive for you,’” she reveals. “He grabbed me by the shoulders and he said, ‘I think you should come!’”
The venerated actress said that was the moment that put her on the road to recovery — and she’s been sober since 1977!
“Ralph’s daughter’s death really broke him, but The Waltons saved him — and he saved me!”