Charlotte Rae played a wise and motherly figure as Edna Garrett on the classic sitcom “The Facts of Life,” but the beloved actress endured painful real-life lessons when her husband cheated on her — with other men!
“It just blew me away,” said Charlotte. “I was absolutely devastated!”
The 89-year-old’s new memoir revisits her shock when composer John Strauss came out as bisexual after 25 years of marriage.
“It made me feel like I was not much of a woman,” said Charlotte, “but we were friends and supported each other until he died.”
Charlotte and her husband divorced in 1976 — two years before she debuted her “Facts” character Edna Garrett on “Diff’rent Strokes.”
John died in 2011, but he wasn’t the only tragedy in Charlotte’s life.
Her autistic son Andy was hospitalized at age 16 as a danger to himself and others. He died of a heart attack in his 40s.
Raising Andy was a “nightmare come true,” wrote Charlotte in the opening of her book, “The Facts of My Life.”
She’s also written about her struggles with booze, and revealed she had treatment for pancreatic cancer — a disease that killed her older sister and mother!
As for remarrying, Charlotte revealed she “had little flings,” but never found Mr. Right.
