You can be sure that Marcia wasn’t the only member of the clan to be experimenting with drugs. It was the 70s, after all. Barry Williams played Greg Williams, the eldest of the Brady sons. Williams used many drugs during ‘The Brady Bunch’ years, he sometimes even smoked marijuana during filming and even showed up high on set.
Interestingly enough, he had a sporadic romance with his on-screen costar and fellow drug user, Maureen McCormick.
Stuck in the Closet
Robert Reed was gay, however, he didn’t disclose his sexuality in fear of it ruining his career. Although it wasn’t discussed between him and fellow cast members, most of the cast and crew of The Brady Bunch knew. Florence Henderson commented on Reed’s hidden secret: "Here he was, the perfect father of this wonderful little family, a perfect husband. Off-camera, he was an unhappy person - I think had Bob not been forced to live this double life, I think it would have dissipated a lot of that anger and frustration. I never asked him. I never challenged him. I had a lot of compassion for him because I knew how he was suffering with keeping this secret."
Reed was unwilling to come to terms with his sexuality and this resentment often led him to self-deprecate and have mental breakdowns. After having unprotected sex with men, Reed contracted HIV. He died in 1992 from complications of AIDS. Although initially, it was believed that Reeds died from colon cancer, his death certificate revealed that he was HIV positive.
Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!
If you are a female who tuned in to watch 'The Brady Bunch', there’s a good chance that you felt jealousy towards the family’s gorgeous eldest blonde daughter, Marcia. Well, Marcia’s on-screen perfection was quite inconsistent with Maureen McCormick’s real-life self. It was revealed after the show came to an end that she was battling drug addiction to coke. Turns out that she slept with her drug dealer in order to score some coke.
“I did it only a few times — and always for the same reason: I wanted coke”. Although she experienced success on the show, her addiction to cocaine and quaaludes led her to struggle for years after the show’s surmise and lose her reputation as a reputable actress.
Where's Dad?
Barry’s drama didn’t end with his drug involvement. Recently, his ex-girlfriend came forward claiming that Williams owed her child support of $12,000 a month.
Hopefully, for Barry, he managed to save some of that money he made from his years of playing Greg!
Turning Over a New Leaf
Unlike Florence Henderson’s happy on-screen role as Carol Brady, off the screen, she was battling depression and a less than happy marriage to her ex-husband Ira Bernstein. Two years after their divorce, Henderson married her second husband, a hypnotherapist. Florence made several television appearances well into her late seventies. She passed away at the age of 82.
After her passing, a few of the Brady Bunch kids took to Twitter, sharing their feelings on the age-old actress. Eve Plumb who played middle sister Jan wrote “Florence was a wonderful role model for me and all of us 'kids'. She taught me how to be a professional actor by her example of preparedness and respect for the work and her fellow cast and crew members.”