‘The Brady Bunch’: Why Maureen McCormick Once Traded Sex for Drugs
The Brady Bunch was a wholesome show, however, the life of one of its actors became incredibly risque. Maureen McCormick, the actor who played Marcia Brady, once had sex in exchange for cocaine. Here’s why she felt compelled to do that.
The shocking personal life of Maureen McCormick
The Brady Bunch isn’t a show with a lot of thrills or melodrama. It’s appeal lies in how cozy and sweet it was. The Bradys were a loving family whose problems were often solved over the course of a single television episode. In Newsweek, McCormick discussed her life – a life with a family that was very different from her family on TV.
She said “To start with, my family was not the Brady Bunch. In the early 70’s, my older brother was battling a heroin addiction and my father was having an affair, both of which devastated my family. I also have a younger brother who is mentally impaired, so that proved another challenge.” The show ended in 1974 and that began a downward slide for McCormick.
What happened after ‘The Brady Bunch’ was cancelled
McCormick describes going to a drug dealer’s house with her then boyfriend when she was 18. She began using cocaine. Her addiction went on for five years. During that time, she describes posing nude for one dealer. She was so addicted she even had sex to obtain cocaine from another dealer. USA Today reports that McCormick’s parents became so desperate at one point they nearly got the police involved.
What turned Maureen McCormick’s life around
What changed things for McCormick was her husband, Michael Cummings. In Newsweek, she says “This is where I met my husband, Michael – it was love at first sight. I started praying that if God was really there, he would come into my life, because I felt totally dead spiritually. It was the start of me getting clean.” Fox News reports McCormick said Cummings “came home and said, ‘If you ever do this drug again, I’m gone, I’m leaving’.” McCormick said she did not want to lose Cummings whom she loved so much.
What did Maureen McCormick do after ‘The Brady Bunch’?
The List reports McCormick continued to play Marcia Brady in a variety of shows. They include The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, The Brady Girls Get Married, The Brady Brides, A Very Brady Christmas, and Bradymania: A Very Brady Special. In addition, McCormick appeared on a HGTV show called A Very Brady Renovation in which the Brady Bunch home was renovated. That show gave the cast members a chance to reunite.
According to Closer Weekly, the success of that show has led McCormick to be the host of a series for HGTV called Frozen in Time. The concept is for Maureen to work on pieces that reflect the home’s era while the interior is brought up to date. Given these shows are more family-friendy, it feels like McCormick is acting a little more like a Brady these days than her post-Brady self.
