Celebrity
The Brady Bunch’s Maureen McCormick Reflects on 40+ Years of Sobriety
The Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick got candid about her sobriety journey.
“I feel incredibly lucky that I found sobriety. It’s been everything to me,” McCormick, 68, exclusively told Us Weekly at the 2024 HollyRod Foundation DesignCare Gala on Saturday, September 28. “It’s not easy in the beginning at all, but it gets better every day. It does, you know? I’m so happy to be sober and to be really clear and comfortable in my skin.”
McCormick, who starred as Marcia Brady in The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974, has been sober for 40+ years — and credits her husband, Michael Cummings, with helping her get sober. (Cummings and McCormick tied the knot in 1985 and share daughter Natalie, 35.)
“My husband was a big part of that for me and my mom and dad and family and some really close friends. It’s an amazing journey,” she shared with Us, adding that she and Cummings are “going on 40 years” together. “I feel very blessed to have him in my life.”
McCormick previously opened up about how her parents and Cummings were the main reasons she decided to get clean.
“My mom and dad, they almost turned me into the cops,” she told Us in September 2018. “They had been trying for years and knew something was going on and I was pretty sneaky and I could hide very, very well. But then I started messing up on jobs and so many things, so I’m sure everyone in the industry at the time knew that I was flaking out.”
The actress went on to explain how she met Cummings, who ended up helping her through her last relapse.
“He came to me and said, ‘If you ever do this drug again, I’m gone, I’m leaving,’” she recalled. “It woke me up. It was like the coldest shower you could ever take, there’s just no way I’m gonna lose somebody that I love.”
While McCormick is celebrating her 40+ years of sobriety, she also recently celebrated The Brady Bunch’s 55 year anniversary.
“It was so funny, because I was on Twitter and I saw something about it, and I went, ‘Oh, wow,’” she shared with Us. “The show will just always hold a super warm spot in my heart. I’m actually seeing Lloyd Schwartz tomorrow night and his wife and we’re still really close. It’s just an amazing bond so I feel very lucky to have that.”
The Brady Bunch, which ran for five seasons from 1969 to 1974, told the story of Mike and Carol Brady’s blended family. Mike (Robert Reed) was the father of songs Greg, Peter and Bobby (played by Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland, respectively), while Carol (Florence Henderson) had three daughters: Marcia (McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb) and Cindy (Susan Olsen).
While Maureen is honoring her sobriety and The Brady Bunch, she also honored her friends Holly Robinson and Rodney Peete at their HollyRod Foundation DesignCare Gala on Saturday.
“Holly and I go way back. No words are needed, because she has her son RJ, and I’ve got a brother with intellectual disabilities, and there’s just this unspoken bond that is so deep,” she gushed to Us. “They’re doing so much and raising so much awareness for Parkinson’s and autism, and making resources available to families that are in desperate need of learning and being taken in.”
With reporting by Mike Vulpo