Susan Olsen: ‘Brady Bunch’ Secrets Include Feuds, Drugs, Gay Dad, And Barry Williams’ Backstage Romances [Video]

Susan Olsen knows all the Brady Bunch secrets, from feuds to a gay dad. And although keeping secrets doesn’t seem like a habit that goes with the Brady Bunch family’s wholesome all-out-there image, just like Susan’s character Cindy who sometimes got into trouble, Olsen is now revealing her Brady Bunch co-stars secrets, reported News Limited.

Now 53, Susan recalled the sometimes passionate relationships among the young actors and actresses who portrayed the famous family on TV.

Maureen McCormick played Marcia Brady, and Olsen revealed that feuds have existed for years between Maureen and Eva Plumb, who played Jan Brady.

“I think it’s kind of petty,” said Susan of their feuds. “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.”

But despite the discord between McCormick and Plumb, the other kids often enjoyed being together, and that included first kisses.

“I had Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady) and we used to make out in the doghouse when we were nine,” revealed Susan.

And Olsen now admits that all of the child actors hooked up at some point during their TV time.

“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. Eve (who played Jan Brady) always had a crush on Chris (Peter Brady), they did kind of hook up later on. And of course there was Maureen (Marcia Brady) and Barry (Greg Brady), but Barry really wanted to hook up with Florence (Carol Brady), but Florence kept that very platonic.”

As for getting rich off the series? To the contrary, claims Susan in revealing one of the well-hidden Brady Bunch secrets.

“Heck no. We even had to pay for our own parking in the first season. They wouldn’t let us drive onto the lot. We earned very, very little.”

And Olsen also had a feud with Barry Williams off and on.

“Barry had been the youngest in his real family and being a big brother on the show was a big deal to him, so the standards that he had within our group were really different for him,” said Susan. “He was kind of macho about it. While he was extremely sweet to me, there was still a little edge to him.”

And Olsen admits it may seem minor to the outside world, but she feels all the Brady Bunch stars still take sides and have ongoing feuds because of what happened in the past.

“It’s all really petty, but if your feelings get hurt when you’re really young, some people carry it with them. Or maybe to them, moving on means moving away,” she mused.

As for the feud between Eve and Maureen?

https://youtu.be/CcNZGfjHUA4

“I understand both sides of the story but I’m a little more inclined to be sympathetic to Eve. I know that’s horrible to say because Maureen is Australia’s little darling now,” she commented.

She also revealed that Robert Reed, who played Mike Brady, hid the fact that he was gay from the child actors.

“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.”

But hiding secrets isn’t just something that the Brady Bunch stars did as children, admitted Susan. Asked whether she once dealt drugs, Olsen confessed.

“I guess technically, but I was really a [marijuana] grower, my husband at the time and I grew it hydroponically. I have never really enjoyed smoking it, it makes me very paranoid. But it was my husband’s idea. It was really fascinating and I’ve always been into ‘gardening’ and it’s such a complicated, wonderfully fascinating plant.”

However, Susan subsequently split from her husband, she added.

“That was one of the reasons why I did leave my husband, because it just bothered me too much that we were doing something so illegal,” Olsen admitted.

Other current problems among the Brady Bunch family’s now-adult actors include Barry Williams, as the Inquistr reported.

https://youtu.be/W6JCYd0Bbiw

Williams reportedly dumped his girlfriend and abandoned his daughter, who is only 3-years-old. Barry and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Kennedy, had been together for seven years. But now she reportedly is out of money and almost out of a home.

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.

However, despite the past problems, Williams now looks back on his life as Greg Brady and says those Brady Bunch years were among the best of his life, reported Us Weekly.

“I was enjoying every minute of it,” reminisced Barry happily. “[I was] having a good time… I loved the ladies, and I would go out and throw back a beer or two.”

[Photo by ABC]