She was best known to millions around the world as perennially cheerful schoolteacher Miss Beadle in Little House On The Prairie.
But in real life, Charlotte Stewart was anything but sweet an innocent.
In her new memoir, A Bad Girl’s Guide To Becoming Miss Beadle, Mary, And Me, the now 75-year-old has opened up about her debaucherous ways that resulted in her being homeless.
Charlotte, who appeared on the family-friendly period drama from 1974-1978, reveals she lived a life of excess that eventually saw her life spiral out of control.
‘The ’70s were an exploratory time with the women’s movement, the free love, and there was lots of marijuana and drugs,’ she admits.
Dalliances with some of Hollywood’s leading men – including Angelina Jolie’s father, Jon Voight, and Bill Murray to name just a couple – were also a regular occurrence.
‘I was in my early 20s and an actress in a town where there were many nice looking men available. They were interested,’ she says, adding with a smile: ‘I had a wonderful time, and I have no regrets.’
However, by the 1980s, her drug and alcohol addiction had well and truly taken hold, and Charlotte found herself homeless – a turning point that finally saw her seek treatment in order to get her life back on track.
‘That was a really horrible time for me,’ she acknowledges. ‘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.’
Fortunately, after cleaning up her act, Charlotte was cast in Twin Peaks – a series that proved so iconic, it’s being remade for Showtime, with the star reprising her role as Betty Briggs.
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