TV sitcom star unrecognizable 50 years after hit show and cocaine battle that saw her trade sex for drugs

SHE was a golden girl of TV, playing a responsible big sister in a hit sitcom over 50 years ago.

At 13, this actress charmed viewers with her girl-next-door image and seemingly perfect life.

But as her fame grew she battled a devastating drug addiction, tragically traded sex for cocaine, and ruined her chances of becoming a big movie star.

In 2008 Maureen McCormick spoke about surviving fame and trauma in her bombshell book, Here’s The Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice.

In the book, The Brady Bunch beauty also revealed husband Michael Cummings saved her with an ultimatum to get clean or he’d leave.

The couple, who have been married for nearly 40 years, share daughter Natalie, 35 and now live a quiet life outside Los Angeles.

However, Maureen, 68, hasn’t turned her back on the show that she loved, and even reprised her role as Marcia Brady in the 2019 spin-off A Very Brady Renovation.

Susan Olsen, Mike Lookinland, Eve Plumb, Christopher Knight, Maureen and Barry Williams starred as the siblings in the US sitcom from 1969-1974 and reunited for the reboot.

Speaking about returning to the role for another stint, Maureen recently told People: “It’s so hard to do a reboot or a remake of something.

“So I feel very protective of it in a way. It has such great memories for so many people, but it would just have to absolutely knock my socks off for me to want to do anything with it. I would know in my heart.

“But it was such an incredible show to be a part of, and my best memories of the show are the people, the crew, and their families.”

Maureen was 14 years old when The Brady Bunch debuted on ABC, with her playing “Miss Perfect” Marcia – but in real life she struggled with anxiety, depression and bulimia.

She was born the youngest of four to a father who abused and cheated on their mother.

As a teenager she learned her grandmother died with syphilis in a mental institution, and that her own mother had contracted it in the womb – leaving her fearful she also had the disease.

She reminisced about her experiences in her book, writing: “As a teenager, I had no idea that few people are everything they present to the outside world.

“Yet there I was, hiding the reality of my life behind the unreal perfection of Marcia Brady.

“No one suspected the fear that gnawed at me even as I lent my voice to the chorus of Bradys singing, ‘It’s a Sunshine Day.’”

When the show ended Maureen turned to a life of partying in Hollywood, developing an addiction to cocaine and quaaludes aged 20.

She soon developed a bad reputation for being unreliable in the industry as addiction took over, even flunking an interview with Stephen Spielberg for Raiders Of The Lost Ark because she was high.

She admitted in her biography that she had sex with a cocaine dealer, and her behaviour led to three unwanted pregnancies.

She added: “I sought refuge in seemingly glamorous cocaine dens above Hollywood.

“I thought I would find answers there, while in reality I was simply running farther from myself.

“From there, I spiraled downward on a path of self-destruction that cost me my career and very nearly my life.”

Maureen went to rehab and credits her husband Michael and her daughter Natalie for turning her life around.