Celebrity

‘Little House on the Prairie’ Star Melissa Gilbert on What Was ‘Sexy Without Him Even Trying’ About Bruce Boxleitner

Melissa Gilbert found one thing about her ex-husband, Bruce Boxleitner, particularly irresistible — 'It is flat-out sexy without him even trying.'

by Kelsey Goeres

Published on February 18, 2021

2 min read

Melissa Gilbert and Bruce Boxleitner’s first date

Shortly after Boxleitner’s ex-wife gave him Gilbert’s number, he gave her a call. Gilbert put on what she considered her “sexiest voice.” But she says “his voice was way better.”

“To this day, his voice still kills me,” she wrote. “It sounds like whiskey and cigars, and it is flat-out sexy without him even trying.”

The How the West Was Won actor asked when she was free and she told him “right now.” He picked her up in a convertible Mercedes and headed to the Cheesecake Factory.

How Melissa Gilbert knew Bruce Boxleitner was ‘the guy’

Shortly after their first date at the Cheesecake Factory, Gilbert invited Boxleitner to a screening of her latest movie, With a Vengeance. They had a great time.

“For years, I was Rob [Lowe]’s appendage, and then I was the woman who was trying to build up Bo [Brinkman],” she wrote. “Now I was with a guy who was absolutely my equal, someone who understood my responsibilities that night and decided he was going to make it easier for me.”

After the event, Gilbert went back to Boxleitner’s home, where she was very impressed, particularly by his chandelier.

“I couldn’t articulate it, but that chandelier was so symbolic to me. It meant he had a home that he owned and a career that was flourishing,” she wrote. “He was a full-grown man, confident, sexy, smart, independent, and together. Bruce was a grown-up but he still had that bad-boy glimmer in his eyes. He was trouble. Trouble with a capital T. I had finally met my match.”

Why the actors divorced after 16 years of marriage

Gilbert and Boxleitner were married for 16 years before divorcing in 2011. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Little House actor filed for divorce for “irreconcilable differences.”