Susan Olsen: ‘Brady Bunch’ Secrets Include Crushes, Maureen McCormick’s Shoplifting, And Brady Family Feuds [Video]

Susan Olsen is sharing Brady Bunch secrets. And the actress who played Cindy Brady isn’t holding back, from Maureen McCormick’s feud with Eve Plumb and shoplifting secrets to Mike Reed’s desire to hide the fact that he was gay, reported News Limited.

The Brady Bunch charmed from 1969 to 1974. And when it comes to the most frequently asked questions, viewers longed to know about backstage romances. Did Barry (who played Greg Brady) love Maureen (who played Marcia Brady)? Did Mike Lookinland (who was Bobby Brady) have a crush on Eve Plumb (aka Jan)? Keeping it simple, Susan shared that at various times, every actor and actress became involved off-set.

“I think all of us did. We led a sheltered life for part of the year, so if there was anybody to get a crush on or try to date, it would be our counterparts.”

Now 53, Olsen revealed that her own hook-up with Mike ranks among the Brady Bunch secrets. They were only nine when they kissed in the doghouse.

In addition, Susan dished about Maureen and Eva. Although they played sisters on-screen, they feuded off-set, says Olsen.

“I think it’s kind of petty,” scoffed the former Cindy Brady. “From day one with these two I have always been in the middle and now it’s at the point where there isn’t even a desire to communicate through me.”

As for taking sides? Olsen admitted that she’s on Team Eve.

“I understand both sides of the story but I’m a little more inclined to be sympathetic to Eve,” said Susan.

Moreover, revealed Cindy Brady’s real life persona, Maureen shoplifted when she was young.

“There was a family band called The Cowsills, and the show The Partridge Family was based on them. When we were all at Hollywood Professional School, Susan Cowsill, who also went there, became very good friends with Maureen. They used to go shoplifting just as a sport and one day they got caught and Maureen bolted and hid in a car for hours and let Susan take the rap for it.”

And another of the Brady Bunch family secrets was never revealed to the actors when they were young, added Olsen.

Although Robert Reed, who played Brady dad Mike, was gay, he did not want his TV kids to know.

“He never meant for us to know. He never ever had any intentions of coming out of the closet and I think he might have been mortified to know that we knew. It wasn’t revealed until Maureen’s wedding night. We were all sitting around talking and Bob had not shown up, and Maureen said, ‘I wish he’d felt comfortable enough to bring a female or male date or just to be here.’ And that’s when one by one we were all like, ‘You knew he was gay too?'”

But Olsen isn’t alone in revealing Brady Bunch secrets. Maureen McCormick struggled in the past with issues ranging from an eating disorder to drug addiction, reported Radar Online.

Maureen has revealed that she battled cocaine addiction and also survived an eating disorder. In a tell-all, McCormick shared her past.

“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.”

In addition, as the Inquisitr reported, Brady Bunch big brother Barry Williams also got in trouble. He looked like a nice guy playing Greg Brady, but his girlfriend claims that he left her and their three-year-old daughter homeless.

Williams and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Kennedy, had been together for seven years.

In response to Kennedy’s allegations, Barry retorted by terming all of her statements as fiction. In addition, he contended that she deliberately became pregnant after he declined to wed her.

[Photo by ABC]