Little House On The Prairie star Charlotte Stewart opens up about her descent into addiction
The actress, who played Miss Beadle on the 1970s hit show says she was made homeless and rehab saved her
SHE was the sweet school ma’m in Little House On The Prairie, but Charlotte Stewart, who played Miss Beadle on the show, saw herself spiral out of control into a wild lifestyle of drink, drugs and sex.
The actress was a household name in the 1970s series, has revealed all in her memoir entitled: A Bad Girl's Guide to Becoming Miss Beadle, Mary, and Me.
However despite being left homeless at one point by her debauched lifestyle, she says she doesn’t regret the many trysts she enjoyed with some of the leading actors of her day.
Among those she says she got intimate with are Jon Voight, Bill Murray, Victor French, Ralph Waite, Mike Connors and Chad Everett, and even spent a wild weekend away with Jim Morrison from The Doors.
She told : “The 70s were an exploratory time with the women's movement, the free love, and there was lots of marijuana and drugs.
"I was in my early 20s and an actress in a town where there were many nice looking men available.
"They were interested.
"I had a wonderful time, and I have no regrets.”
Stewart is candid in the book about how her life entered a downward spiral – she became addicted to drink and drugs and was left homeless at one point.
She told the , it was a horrible time, and added her business manager in the early 80’s had “put a lot of my money up his nose and I wasn't getting jobs.”
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She continued: “I was spending too much time playing.
"People were trying to help me, but I didn't want to hear what they were saying.
“That's common with addicts.
"I'm grateful that I had friends and family that hung in there with me and I had some sense to listen to them."
She managed to turn everything around when she went to rehab – and help also came from director David Lynch, who cast her as Mary X in Eraserhead
He also helped her in the 1990's when she got a role in Twin Peaks and she is set to appear as Betty Briggs in the follow up which will air on Showtime in the US.
Little House On The Prairie ran on NBC from 1974 to 1983 and also starred Karen Grassle as Charles' wife Caroline and Melissa Sue Anderson as Laura's older sister Mary.
It still airs today.