One of the most well-known couples in television history, Olivia and John Walton were portrayed on television as a devoted married pair in the hit CBS comedy “The Waltons.”
Even though they were always surrounded by children and every show stressed the importance of love and family, their lives were very different from the ideal existence they presented on television.
“The Waltons” was a popular family favorite that ran for nine seasons from 1972 to 1981.
Raising seven children and living with their grandparents in the fictional mountain village of Walton’s Mountain, Michael Learned’s Olivia and Ralph Waite’s John were a couple struggling during the Great Depression.
Learned and Waite discovered they had a lot in common when they were cast for the show. They both came from big households, and this was their first significant break in acting.
Learned was born in Washington, D.C., but she and her five younger sisters spent most of their childhood on a farm in Connecticut.
In Tring, Hertfordshire, England, she attended the Arts Educational School, Tring (now Tring Park School for the Performing Arts) to study acting when she was eleven years old.
But it wasn’t until she was 33 that she got the role that would make her most renowned. As the oldest child in a large family who had grown up in White Plains, New York, Waite, her on-screen spouse, was eleven years her senior.
After high school, Waite enlisted in the Marines, attended college, and worked briefly as a social worker before earning a master’s degree from Yale University and receiving his Presbyterian pastorate.
He decided to pursue a career in acting, and after landing several TV and movie parts in his mid-40s, he was cast in the iconic role of John Walton.
The two hit it off immediately, and their on-screen chemistry quickly won them over fans. Learned received three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Olivia Walton.
However, Learned had a tumultuous personal life despite projecting the ideal family on television. She married Canadian-American actor Peter Donat for the first time in 1956 when she was seventeen years old, and the two of them had three children together. She had two more marriages after a 16-year divorce before she finally found someone she could truly be happy with.
Learned remarried to Glenn Chadwick in 1974 following a three-year marriage to actor-screenwriter William Parker in 1979.
In a 2017 interview, Learned admitted to being the victim of domestic abuse by a long-term spouse, whom she chose not to name. She said that after her partner choked her, she understood she had to leave since she could no longer give “the other cheek,” according to Closer Magazine.
Another obstacle in her life was her divorce from her first husband, which Waite helped her overcome by helping her overcome her alcohol addiction.
I was severely intoxicated when the show began, and Ralph saved my life.”Really,” she whispered.
She explained how they would often leave for lunch during their breaks and return to the set drunk. Overindulging in alcohol, Waite eventually “straightened himself out,” urging her to do the same. She then sobered up to her ex-husband Donat’s secluded coastal villa in California, and she hasn’t touched alcohol since.
Waite was married three times and went through his share of hardships; he admitted that the consequences of his divorces were so bad that he never gave himself permission to consider being married again.
The two did find happiness in their most recent weddings, to 20-year-old lawyer Kerry Shear and 12-year-old lawyer John Doherty, respectively.
But in 2019, five years after Waite’s death, Learned finally admitted what fans had always suspected: that she and Waite were deeply in love.
She explained how they would often leave for lunch during their breaks and return to the set drunk. Overindulging in alcohol, Waite eventually “straightened himself out,” urging her to do the same. She then sobered up to her ex-husband Donat’s secluded coastal villa in California, and she hasn’t touched alcohol since.
Waite was married three times and went through his share of hardships; he admitted that the consequences of his divorces were so bad that he never gave himself permission to consider being married again.
The two did find happiness in their most recent weddings, to 20-year-old lawyer Kerry Shear and 12-year-old lawyer John Doherty, respectively.
But in 2019, five years after Waite’s death, Learned finally admitted what fans had always suspected: that she and Waite were deeply in love.
Despite their obvious on-screen chemistry, their choice to keep their feelings to themselves shows how dedicated they are to the show, which has won over millions of viewers and is still seen on television today.
