Why Was She Given Up for Adoption, and Who Took Her In?
On May 8, 1964, the future celebrity was born in a Los Angeles hospital called The French Hospital, which no longer exists. When she was only 24 hours old, the star was taken in by Barbara Crane and Paul Gilbert, her adoptive parents.
The pair also adopted her younger brother, Jonathan. Paul was a stand-up comic, actor, and dancer but started as an aerialist with a family circus from Buenos Aires, Barbara was an actress in her twenties, but her career was short-lived. When the little girl was six, Barbara and Paul separated, with his daughter recalling him fondly, saying:
“My father was the most incredibly talented, vivacious, funny, loving, fair person I ever knew.”
In 1976, Paul passed on with people thinking he’d died from a stroke while sleeping. Her adoption wasn’t kept a secret. In her book, “Prairie Tale: A Memoir,” the star said she was told as a child that her biological mother, Kathy Wood, was a prima ballerina while her father, David Darlington, had been a Rhodes Scholar.
Her adoptive parents said her birth parents weren’t interested in giving up their careers to bring her up. The celebrity’s father was said to have been in the middle of a project, and the timing of the birth was off, so they gave their daughter up.
When she was old enough, she found out the real truth about her biological parents. Her birth mother was indeed a dancer but not a prima ballerina, and David worked as a sign painter and a stock car racer.Both Kathy and David were initially married to other people, and each had three children. The pair ran off, got pregnant, and then moved in with their children but decided they couldn’t afford their seventh one.
Adoptive Parents Didn’t Want Her
After her adoptive father passed away, the actress was shocked to find more details about her adoption. Her godmother, Mitzi, delved into the day her adoptive parents fetched her from the hospital.
She confessed it was a shock when the Gilberts returned with their new child. The actress was surprised by this and, along with other family members, turned to look at Barbara, who admitted:
“I mean, we had no plans to adopt a child.”
Barbara said she and her husband weren’t looking for a child when they got a phone call that the little girl would be available. The star’s adoptive mother called her husband, who was on the road, and he told her to “‘go get it.'”
She told the interviewer that keeping such a deep secret wasn’t something she’d do to her children…
She was shocked to hear herself being called an “it,” but Barbara explained that at that point, she hadn’t been born yet. Later, Barbara told her they had been trying to get pregnant when they were informed about her impending arrival….CONTINUE READING