Melissa Gilbert accuses Shannen Doherty of cheating with her first husband

June 2024 · 3 minute read

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Last week Star Magazine ran a story about Shannen Doherty’s history of dating taken men and breaking up their marriage. Doherty’s latest boyfriend, a photographer she met during a photoshoot last summer, was married when he hooked up with her. The guy’s mother-in-law told Star “Shannen broke up a marriage and that’s all I’m going to say!”

Shannen also broke up “Nip/Tuck” hottie and her “Charmed” co-star Julian McMahon’s marriage to Brooke Burns with a much-talked about affair in 2001. McMahon and Burns had a one year-old daughter at the time.

Now there are allegations that Doherty helped hasten the end of her former “Little House on The Prairie” co-star Melissa Gilbert’s first marriage to Bo Brinkman. Gilbert has a new memoir coming out called
Prairie Tale, and Star Magazine has advance details that Gilbert dishes on Brinkman’s one night stand with Shannen. The sad part that Star fails to mention is that Shannen was a teenager when she slept with Brinkman and may not have even been of legal age. It’s hard to tell with the vague timeline they’re giving, but she wasn’t 20 yet. Gilbert claims that Doherty seduced her husband because she looked up to her and wanted to be like her:

Shannen was just 11 when she was cast as Melissa’s niece Jenny for Little House’s final season. She immediately glommed onto Melissa, the show’s biggest star, according to the insider.

“Melissa tells of how Shannen was in awe of her. She’d follow her all around the set and even gushed how she wanted to be like her when she grew up.”

Five years after the show ended, Melissa married Bo – Dennis Quaid’s cousin – following a whirlwind eight-week romance…

But the marriage was soon in trouble and it was during a counseling session that Bo admitted he’d slept with Shannen, says the publishing insider.

“Melissa implies in the book that it was Shannen who sought Bo out, purely because she wanted to be like Melissa,” the insider says.

Just as the marriage was falling apart, Melissa bumped into Shannen – who was then only 20 – at an awards ceremony and told her she knew of the secret night of passion with her husband.

“Melissa writes that Shannen just looked her straight in the eye, smirked and made a snide comment.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, June 1, 2009]

Melissa was married to Bo Brinkman from 1988 to 1992. Shannen was 17 in 1988, so she wasn’t of legal age until the next year. Even if she sought out Gilbert’s husband he has no excuse for taking the bait, especially from a barely-legal teenage girl! This sadly became a pattern for Doherty, though, and now she’s taken up with yet another married man.

Gilbert has sort-of admitted that she makes this claim in her book. She just found out yesterday that the news was out about the big bombshell in her book. Here’s the timeline from her official twitter account.

From user HBTracey: @melissaEgilbert Star spoils your book. Did SD really sleep with Bo? How old was she?

From melissaEgilbert: @HBTracey Star spoils your book- Star magazine?!?

From melissaEgilbert: @HBTracey Star Mag. Chelsea Handler revealed on last night’s show.- Crap

[From Melissa Gilbert’s twitter]

No word from Melissa on how old Doherty was when she slept with her first husband. I guess we’ll have to wait for the book for that.

Melissa Gilbert is shown on 3/25/09. Shannen Doherty is shown on 1/10/09 and 3/8/09. Credit: WENN.com

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