Michael Learned Shares Humiliating ‘Mean Girl’ Encounter

The Waltons legend Michael Learned has relived the 'humiliating' moment she was bullied by two A-list actresses.

Learned, 87, who played 'America's mom' Olivia Walton from 1972-1979, revealed she was 'mean girled' by the actresses, who made disparaging remarks about her and the show and while in an elevator.

Speaking on the Still Here Hollywood podcast with Steve Kmetko, Learned branded the 'well-known' stars 'so rude', saying: 'In my memoir, if I ever get it written I will name them. 

'But we were in an elevator together and they were so damn rude and because they knew who I was, they started talking about that show.

'You know with all the kids in blue jeans and bare feet and they were making fun of me and I didn't have the chutzpah or whatever to call them out on it so I stood there and in horrible humiliation and said nothing.'

Learned revealed her regret over staying silent, saying she wishes she had 'given it back in some way': 'I still haven't gotten over it obviously because I'm talking about it but they were just so rude.'

Kmetko responded: 'Don't give into the haters.'

Learned - overcame a crippling alcohol addiction to win three Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Olivia Walton - and continues to work to this day, her most recent role being in film Our Crossroads in 2024.

In 2017 she appeared on Loose Women to reflect on her time on the show, admitting that it 'saved' her financially as she had just been through a divorce and was a single parent when she got the role.

'I was going through a divorce from a husband I had lived half my life with,' she revealed. 

'I had three kids and no money. I went out to LA and stayed in a motel and stayed on my own… It [The Waltons] saved me', the mother-of-three said.

But Learned's love life has made almost as many headlines over the years as her glittering acting career.

She has been married four times in total, first to Canadian-American actor Peter Donat who is best known for playing Bill Mulder, the father of Fox Mulder in sci-fi show The X-Files during the 1990s, and father to her three children.

Her second marriage was to Glenn Chadwick, a stagehand, which lasted only two years, from 1975-1977.

She was then wed to actor/screenwriter William Parker in 1979. She divorced from Parker, who wrote episodes of The Waltons, in 1988.

Finally, she found long-lasting happiness with lawyer John Doherty, whom she married in 1988. Doherty passed away in 2025.