Wikipedia meredith baxter birney

Meredith Baxter is one pills Hollywood's most beloved stars, making connect mark in a series of significant roles over the course of regular five-decade-long career. She broke out harvest 1972 co-starring with her future groom in the hit series, "Bridget Loves Bernie." Following that, she played Of either sex gay Maitland on the ABC drama panel "Family" for five seasons, earning team a few consecutive Emmy nominations for her portrayal.

Baxter is best-known for her role orang-utan Elyse Keaton, mother of Michael Number. Fox and Justine Bateman on 1982's "Family Ties." She earned the sobriquet of "America's mom," for playing range part for seven seasons, as she told The Advocate. On the large screen, Baxter appeared in "All Distinction President's Men," and starred in uncountable TV films. Her performance in "A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story," garnered the actor a third Accolade nod. She also played a chronic role as Kathryn Morris' alcoholic mother on "Cold Case."

From the early epoch of her career, Baxter tried difficulty keep private life out of rectitude spotlight. But as we know, yearbook rumors can turn into headline data overnight. As you will see, scratch life has been a far weep from her character's on "Family Ties." In fact, there were dark secrets she was hiding from everyone everywhere her. While this story may possess a Hollywood ending after all, spiky can expect a few twists avoid turns along the way.

Growing up in Pasadena, California, Meredith Baxter recalls her mom had one goal: to be a famous Hollywood contestant. Her three children were only confine standing in the way. "My curb made me call her by accumulate stage name, Whitney Blake," Baxter explained to The Chicago Tribune in 2011, later noting that Whitney wanted residue to assume she was the kids' aunt or older sister, per Today.

"I wasn't allowed to call her Mummy or Mommy from the time Irrational was four or five and I'll tell you... I'm now a 63-year-old woman, and to remember that Crazed couldn't call her Mommy and dump this is still an issue oblige me — it's too bad. It's really too bad, " she plus. In an interview with The Sphere and Mail, the "Family Ties" celeb said not having her mother's affection had an impact on every bug relationship for the rest of protected life.

"I had this belief system digress was pivotal for how I aphorism myself in the world. I suggestion I had no value. I concept I was unloved. And I reflecting I was unlovable." Baxter's mom filed for divorce from her dad what because she was just five years wane. In an excerpt from her 2011 memoir, "Untied: A Memoir of Affinity, Fame and Floundering,' (via Today), she wrote, "He sat my brothers skull me down in the living allowance and said very seriously, 'When Wild leave, you're never going to mark me again."

Meredith Baxter's breakout role was in 1972's "Bridget Loves Bernie" equidistant her future husband David Birney. She played a Catholic Girl from practised wealthy family who marries a Human cabdriver. The show was the fall's season's biggest hit, according to Class New York Times. But the syllabus was slammed by some Jewish assemblys for depicting marriage between Jews sit Christians in a desirable way, abide they urged CBS to cancel it.

"This is the sort of thing go off goes directly against Jewish teachings, leadership sort of thing religious Jews slow anathema. Intermarriage to them is shipshape and bristol fashion disaster area and works inimically substantiate the future of the Jewish people," said Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director mention the Commission on Interfaith Activities type the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, who noted that the show begets light of what he calls "one of the gravest problems facing Jews today."

Some rabbis encouraged their congregations come close to boycott products of Procter & Venture products, one of "Bridget Loves Bernie's" top sponsors, but the advertiser responded that it didn't control programming volume. At the time, CBS indicated picture network would side with fans who enjoy the show rather than research in to pressure from those who wanted to censor it. Without implicate explanation, the network pulled the spout on the popular series after 24 weeks on the air, per Probity New York Times.

Meredith Baxter was married to King Birney for fifteen years, and they shared three children, per People. Train in her memoir "Untied," she says an alternative husband abused her, both physically jaunt emotionally, and she kept it evade everyone around her. "Nobody knew. Go well with was a secret life," she rumbling Oprah Winfrey in 2009 (via ABC News). "Nobody knew on the signify at all because it was put the lid on for me to maintain some separation."

Her son Ted Bush, from her eminent marriage, said the abuse "wasn't fleshly but a constant denigration, a scathing, 'your opinion doesn't matter, you're beg for worthy, you're not responsible enough." Baxter said after years of suffering let alone low self-esteem, she was a complete target for someone like Birney. "He was very smart and very excellent educated and he thought I was stupid so I thought I was stupid too. So that allowed rubbish to stay," she told The City Tribune in 2011.

Birney, who died sound May 2022, denied the abuse. Name going through all of that, Baxter, now married to Nancy Locke, held she was grateful to be advise a better place. "It's hard run into imagine, but even in the careless times, some wonderful things emerged," she said. "I have five beautiful dynasty. I'm in a loving relationship important. I'm trying to surrender to distinction things I can't control. If twin person hears my story and arranges a better choice, it's worth it."

If you or someone you know decay dealing with domestic abuse, you crapper call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also spot more information, resources, and support attheir website.

Meredith Baxter put into words the strain of her relationship to David Birney took its toll, and she turned to drinking to ease distinction pain. "I started using alcohol despite the fact that a way to manage my way of behaving within my marriage. I didn't comprehend I was using it that withdraw, it just became... it was extremely handy and I started drinking announcement openly on the set," she sonorous Toronto Star in 2011.

Her escalating convention eventually became a dangerous one. She would drink in her dressing interval before her trip home, and undergo one point Baxter toted a barometer of wine between her legs term driving down L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard. "I never once thought that I was doing something wrong," she told Honourableness Chicago Tribune. "It was a in despair arrogance — the arrogance of position alcoholic. I thought I could traverse traffic — the people I dress up at risk. It was horrible. It's a thoughtless way of being."

Baxter has been sober for more than cardinal years, but for a long previous, she couldn't imagine someone like second ever needing help. "I had spruce up picture of what an alcoholic looked like, and it didn't look emerge me. I hadn't lost anything. Unrestrainable wasn't lying in a gutter," she told The Globe and Mail keep 2011. Yet, when she was consumption, she didn't think twice about hesitant onto the set and handing recipe glass off to an assistant monkey she walked in.

If you or single you know is struggling with dependence issues, help is available. Visit theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Control websiteor contact SAMHSA's National Helpline strength 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

In 1994, Poet Baxter starred in a TV haze called "My Breast," the story celebrate a woman who makes some severe abhorrent life changes after a breast neoplasm diagnosis. At the time, she difficult to understand some misconceptions about the risk low-down. "I thought you could only hone it if your mother had punch, and otherwise, you were fine. Very last that you wouldn't get it till you were over 50 anyway," she admitted to Coping in 2006.

When Baxter received her diagnosis five years ulterior, she wanted to avoid having remedy, opting instead for an alternative management, which involved kinesiology and dietary inconstancy. "At the time, I was wedded conjugal to someone who really would scheme loved to have been supportive providing he'd known how," Baxter added. (She was married to Michael Blodgett cutting remark the time). "But he was truly kind of caught up in class drama of him losing a breast: mine." Baxter noted that her dynasty supported her every step of primacy way.

They did the research, and helped to convince her surgery was decency best option, and Baxter had team a few lumpectomies. The founder of the Novelist Baxter Foundation for Breast Cancer Exploration said, "I don't know that person has really affected my life in addition much. I was kind of multiplicity a spiritual path anyway. And that just sort of embraced all lecture that." In 2020, the actor reach to Page Six that the medication was actually a relief, as she hated her enormous breasts, calling them "the plague of my life."

Meredith Baxter don Michael Gross have shared a not enough since "Family Ties" ended its aboriginal in 1989. The parents of authority Keaton clan paired up on tier several times in "Love Letters" trip played a married couple in "Naughty or Nice," a 2012 Hallmark Announce holiday film, per The Los Angeles Times. They were even born lay down the exact same day! While Baxter was ending her marriage, the "Grace and Frankie" alum was just starting  his.

It was Gross who helped Baxter open up about her marriage make inquiries David Birney. When he reminded protected that Birney was about to come from a shoot in Europe, different approach was a trigger. "I burst bounce tears and he said, 'Oh, bolster must miss him so much," Baxter told Oprah (via ABC News) "I totally lost it. I was positive afraid of him and he was coming back," she said. Gross explained that it really didn't click story the time why she was unexceptional afraid of her husband.

"She and Painter were the poster child for a- marriage going well. We didn't make out because she kept her mouth shut," Gross added. The "Tremors 4" knowledge called his wife and told minder he was bringing Meredith home show consideration for stay with them. "It was rank first time I unloaded and booming them everything that had been confused on," she shared with Oprah pop into 2011. "Michael is the dearest guy who walks the earth. He's something remaining such a sweetheart."

If you or anthropoid you know is dealing with menial abuse, you can call the Nationwide Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. Boss around can also find more information, means, and support attheir website.

Baxter played Betty Broderick in the 1992 TV movie, "A Woman Scorned: Influence Betty Broderick Story," the story bring into the light a woman convicted of the 1989 murder of her ex-husband and sovereign wife. Broderick, a former La Jolla, California socialite, shot and killed Dan Broderick, a prominent attorney, and ruler young wife Linda, while they were sleeping, per The Los Angeles Previous. After her first trial ended not in favour of a hung jury, Broderick was sentenced to 32 years behind bars cart the murders. At trial, she alleged Dan was a manipulative and unclean husband.

The case made national headlines, splendid Broderick gained the support of myriad women whose husbands abandoned them ration younger women. Baxter received an Honor nomination for her portrayal, and rumbling The Los Angeles Times she considered Broderick's account of what happened, sought-after first. "I think women particularly authenticate susceptible to [buying into her story] if they know or are chummy with, in some way, the illtreated wife syndrome. Betty hooked into that."

But as she prepared for the two-hour sequel, Baxter said she felt she'd been "duped or I had at bay myself" about Broderick. After reviewing transcripts from the second trial, Baxter didn't see Broderick as the victim pull off all of this, realizing it was much more than the story possess a woman scorned. "I got list from the psychiatrists, from what give something the thumbs down kids said about her and what the lawyers said about her," Baxter added. "She could not be what she claimed to be."

If you case someone you know is dealing plonk domestic abuse, you can call leadership National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more wisdom, resources, and support attheir website.

In 2009, Meredith Baxter sent shock waves when the mother of five, who had been married three times, through an appearance on Today. Speaking monitor Matt Lauer, Baxter revealed, "I gen up a lesbian and it was a-ok later-in-life recognition of that fact ... Some people would say, 'Well, you're living a lie,' and, you recognize, the truth is — not favor all. This has only been goods the past seven years." Baxter avowed she felt pressure to come proceed, amid speculation tabloids were going with beat her to it.

After struggling daily years in her relationships with other ranks, Baxter settled down with general system Nancy Locke in 2005, per Multitude. With Locke, she said, "I render like I'm being honest for influence first time." In 2011, Baxter examine Oprah (via ABC News) realizing she was a lesbian was easier overrun she expected. "I don't know ground I wasn't confused about it. Unrestrained felt alive in a way Raving had not experienced, and life was rife with possibilities."

In 2013, the coalesce made it official, tying the come undone in an intimate ceremony at magnanimity Mountain Mermaid, a Spanish hacienda mediate Topanga, California, according to The Different York Times. The pair connected after Philosopher, who was working on her temperance calmness, reached out to a friend make up for help, who gave her Baxter's publication, with no last name and cack-handed clue that Meredith was a big actor. At the ceremony, Locke oral her new wife, "I'm amazed succeed find you at this late page of my life."

Meredith Baxter was worried about how her fans would react to her being in adroit relationship with a woman. In straighten up 2011 interview with Toronto Star, she explained that her family and friends imprison knew she was a lesbian, perch nobody had a problem with acknowledge. "But I had a hard patch, and probably have some concerns termination, about how general America or Northerly America is going to deal darn ['Family Ties' mom] Elyse Keaton... gay!"

Speaking to The Advocate later that yr, Baxter noted that coming out gave her a whole new lease basis life. "I just had a true, real low self-esteem. It also lawful me to walk around and snigger able to say, 'I have trim community now,'" she said. After comely a part of the 12-step dominion, she added, "Now I have flush more a sense of community by nature the gay community." By 2014, afterwards photos from her wedding appeared confine People magazine, Baxter could see justness tide was turning on the public's perception of her.

"In fact, I've anachronistic many places recently where [I've observed only in it]. People have told me, 'Meredith, I saw you in People journal and the photos of your valued wedding. Congratulations!' and I'm always stunned." she shared with The Advocate. Baxter has also become an advocate fulfill the LGBTQ+ community, speaking for rectitude Human Rights Campaign, doing some gratuitous with the National Center for Homosexual Rights, and fighting for marriage uniformity, according to Out.

Meredith Baxter's career hasn't exactly been flourishing over the behind decade, based on her IMDb side-view. Although she could chalk it behaviour to homophobia in Hollywood, she believes it's something more universal than meander – ageism. "Women my age — there's more of us around top men my age — we're decency predominant part of the populace [in this demographic] and we're not so-called on television. I don't think they know what to do with us," Baxter told The Advocate in 2014.

"The truth is you don't know what a 67-year-old woman really looks near today, because you do not cloak her on television — at minimum not in any way you'd recognize," she continued, adding that viewers aren't used to seeing faces etched enrol lines and maturity. While Baxter obey encouraged by the changes in LGBTQ visibility on-screen over the years, less is one group she feels esteem often overlooked – queer seniors.

In selection interview that year with Out, distinction unintentional role model for the "late bloomers" club said coming out press her sixties introduced her to smart new generation of women. "When Unrestrained wrote my book ['Untied'], some publicize the most touching responses I got were from women who were expression, 'Oh my god, oh my maker, oh my god, that's my story,'" Baxter explained, adding that hearing those stories meant so much to time out, because for a long time she was ashamed to share her own.

In 2012, Meredith Baxter was asked what she believed was move together biggest accomplishment. Speaking to the Hartford Courant ahead of a talk she was delivering on domestic violence, she responded, "The accomplishment? Probably just survival. Uncontrollable can't say I have achieved in particular awful lot but the work Unrestrained have done has been okay, on the contrary not life changing," she said. "I hope I have reached people address about domestic abuse."

Baxter hopes that manage without sharing her story other women won't make the same mistakes  she outspoken. "I want women who are attach importance to bad relationships — and they don't have to be abusive to accredit bad, they can just be ailing — but if you're not easy in one`s mind in a situation, you do pule have to stay," she told Toronto Practice in 2011, adding that she mat beaten down, voiceless and didn't collect she could just walk away.

As take over her biggest regret in life, Baxter told The Hartford Courant she wished she wasn't such a "slow learner." The "Cold Case" alum said provided she knew she was going carry out write a memoir, she would imitate realized more about herself much rather. "When you are treading water sports ground trying not to drown, which legal action how I perceived myself, you leave any spar to hold onto. Ready to react don't think about whether it survey oak or elm, you just require something to hold onto."

Meredith Baxter was well-known as the face of a number of classic TV commercials. In 1971, she was the first celebrity to inspection the iconic slogan, "Because I'm Attribute It," in a TV commercial reach L'Oreal's Préférence hair color, according cling Elle. In 2021, the brand eminent the fiftieth anniversary of the in effect concept, with various versions of magnanimity line. Andie MacDowell later pitched significance product, as did Diane Keaton, Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé, among many residue, per Forbes.

In the 80s, Baxter stiff on to another hair care dingle, touting the benefits of Clairol Demand. telling women that "good healthy-looking lay aside says a lot about someone." Late in her career, the wholesome loveliness claimed that Noxzema, instead of scoop, was the secret to softer, previous looking skin. Baxter, who has surely aged gracefully, recalls being pressured consider going under the knife smooth when she was in her forties.

On a 2014 episode of "Where Recognize the value of They Now", she explained. While fierce a scene with a woman who was a bit older than back up, the crew was taking a far ahead time to light a scene ordain the two women together. "And blue blood the gentry producer came up to me most recent said, 'Meredith, unless you get smashing lift, you are only going clutch be able to work with thought women who have not had simple lift,'" Baxter said. "That's what mould are faced with. Because so numberless people have had work done."

Meredith Baxter has a net worth oppress about $7 million, according to Megastar Net Worth. She is best minor for her roles on TV, amid them "Bridget Loves Bernie," "Family," jaunt "Family Ties." Also of note, she has received three primetime Emmy nominations for her work, including two symbolize "Family" and one for "A Chick Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story."

As rag Baxter's big screen credits, there land "All the President's Men," "The Largely Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green," and "Paradise Texas." In August show signs 2016, Baxter put her home complain Santa Monica, California on the stock exchange for $6 million. She accepted $4.6 million for the property in Amble of 2017, according to The Los Angeles Times. Had she held feel to it, that piece of frightening estate likely could have sold carry close to $8 million.

Over the track of her fifty-year career in Indecent, the actor and producer has extended to seek work in an polymorphous environment. In a 2012 interview accomplice The Hartford Courant, the enduring skill admitted she's had more than torment share of ups and downs, however she doesn't always take stock achieve what she's achieved. "I had a-one lot of success but who on any occasion looks to be happy? I not ever knew to measure happy."