الوسم: Gilbert

"I had spent most of my life pressured to look a certain way and I believed the hype," wrote Gilbert, who married actor Timothy Busfield in 2024. "The height of this obsession with my outward appearance culminated with my appearance on the dancing show. It was all about spray tan and glitter and glamor and what other people think and being skinny, way too skinny!! Yuck!!
"I stayed in that head space for several months after that. Then I had a rude awakening. A 300 pound patio cover collapsed on my head. It was like the universe smacking me in the head and screaming,’WAKE UP MELISSA!!!!’ Wake up I did. It was like a light switch going on. The shallowness of my existence at that point brought me to my knees. I had to change. I had to look inward and address my issues (this looking inward is a constant process by the way). It was time for me to change. I had to focus on what was real and true. I’d lost myself somehow."

Gilbert’s self-consciousness about her **** began when she was a young TV star. She described wearing padded bras on the last few seasons of Little House, which ended in 1983. When she starred in a TV version of Splendor in the Grass in 1981, Gilbert noted she was once again outfitted in a padded bra, but also a girdle, a corset, and painted-on cleavage. The actress now Says her natural breasts were right for her ****-type — "Perfect A cups" — but she didn’t feel that way then, especially after breastfeeding her first child, son Dakota, in 1989.
"I was left feeling a bit uncomfortable about my breasts but it was so worth it to have my beautiful, healthy son," she wrote. "And then my husband at the time, referred to my boobs as……and I quote…. ‘Socks full of marbles with knots at the top.’

"A few years later we got divorced," continued Gilbert, whose ex-husbands include Bo Brinkman and fellow actor Bruce Boxleitner. "Not only because of the sock comment. Although the sock comment was symptomatic of all that was wrong between us. And there I was, single and feeling enormously insecure about my breasts. Then and there, without doing any research, I made the decision, to get my breasts augmented. Not too big, just enough to fill up the ‘socks.’"
After another pregnancy — her son Michael was born in 1995 — and reading about how Implants should be replaced periodically, Gilbert decided to replace her Implants and get a Breast lift in 2024. She liked the results of the procedure at first, but eventually was overcome with worry.

"I couldn’t shake the idea that my Implants had a ****f life," she shared candidly. "They would have to have them replaced every 10-15 years for the rest of my life. It was possible that at 80 years old I might have to get new implants! Huh?? I also began thinking a lot about the silicone in my **** and what might go wrong."
Dancing With the Stars and her so-called smack from the universe convinced her to lose the Implants for good. The lengthy essay, which she posted on Dec. 31, explained that she planned to have the procedure this week.
"The bottom line…or top line.. is that; A. I am concerned for my health and 2. I don’t like the way they look or feel. Frankly, I’d like to be able to take a Zumba class without the fear that I’ll end up with two black eyes," she joked.