Michael Learned

Learned has been married four times. Her first husband was Canadian-American actor Peter Donat (1928-2018), whom she married in 1956 when she was 17 years old. The marriage was dissolved 16 years later in 1972. She had three sons by that marriage, one of whom is actor and business executive Lucas Donat (born 1962).^[12] Her second marriage, to Glen Chadwick, lasted only three years from 1974 to 1977 and also ended in divorce. In 1979, she married actor-screenwriter William Parker.^[12] That marriage ended in divorce as well. In 1991, she married lawyer John Doherty and the couple resided in California.^[13][14] Doherty died in 2025. ^[15] In a 2002 article she wrote for the Daily Word, a publication of the Unity Church, Learned states that at the time she was cast in The Waltons in 1971, she had "hit rock bottom". Then, at age 32, Learned realized she was an alcoholic. Taking herself to former husband Peter Donat's remote cabin on the California coast, she decided to "get sober" and that her time there was the beginning of a spiritual journey. Learned further stated in the article that she has been sober since 1977.^[16]