Rob Lowe Memoir Grazes Over Tumultuous Love Affair With Melissa Gilbert

By Rob Shuter Posted Apr 27th 2011 11:40AM

In her 2010 tell-all memoir 'Prairie Tale,' actress Melissa Gilbert revealed she had had three nose jobs by age 20, struggled with drugs and alcohol and shocked the world with pages and pages on her tumultuous love affair with Rob Lowe, including losing his child. Laura Ingalls all grown up. Now, Rob has released his own biography and, amazingly, it contains only a handful of passing mentions of her.

The book, 'Stories I Only Tell My Friends,' hit shelves on Tuesday and is heavy on his Hollywood bromances with Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn, dining with Chris Farley and his eery connection with the 9/11 tragedy. An amazing and fun read, no doubt.

Much has been made of the fact 'Stories' only grazes over his infamous (underage) sex tape, but a close inspection shows just as little attention on his former love, Melissa, whom he dated off and on for six years and proposed to.

A search using Google Books of both tell-alls surfaces 77 mentions of "Rob" in Melissa's book, but only four "Melissa" shout-outs in 'Stories.'

She writes that she "fell instantly, hopelessly and stupidly in love" with him and later talks about the anguish of losing him.

Oddly, the most he talks about her is when he describes how when her mom was keeping her from seeing him, he began spending more time with Sheen and his brother, Emilio Estevez.

There is no mention of the length and intensity of their relationship -- which was filled with infidelities -- nor their brief engagement and tragic miscarriage.

It's a far cry from Melissa's description of losing their child in 'Prairie Tale.' After praising Rob for vowing to stand by whatever decision she made, she described waking up one day with blood on her sheets.

"Scared, I finally told my mother what was going on and she took me to my doctor. He did an ultrasound and told me that I was having a miscarriage. I went home in a daze and let nature take its course. I called Rob and told him what had happened. He seemed relieved. We made an attempt at a conversation but it was too sad."

She later writes about the tragedy, "There was nothing left for me to do afterwards but go home and face reality. I had lost the baby and my relationship with Rob. Now I was completely, totally alone, and it hurt like hell."

I've left messages for comment from reps for both Rob and Melissa, but a friend of the actress tells me she's "devastated" by the apparent slight.

"Of course Melissa has read it," a friend of the actress tells me. "She's devastated that someone who meant so much to her, someone who dominated her young life, doesn't think she was as important to him as he was to her."

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Tags: Melissa Gilbert, Rob Lowe

Comments

(122)

Thursday 28 April

By Marcus

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Well, no offense but a sexual realtionship for a women is a spiritual and emotional phenomenon. A sexual relationship for a man is just practice for the next one. Women see sex as a union of body and soul and a man sees sex as a sport. The more you practice, the better you play. It doesnt surprise me that she put so much weight on their time together considering her age at the time and the miscarriage.

By dee

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That would make all men heathen and heartless. I've wondered about this for so long. Why do men describe themselves in this way? It must be true that men are heartless. Are there any sane men?

By marcus

Frankly I think it makes many women gullible and cripples them emotionaly from enjoying an activity that is supposed to be purely pleasurable. Certainly it is special to have sex with someone you love but that shouldnt be the only perameter. It brings to mind the time I heard a lady on television who was pissed that her husband wanted to go to the strip clubs. Her response was "He doesn't need to go there, I got everything he needs right here." I listened in disbelief that she truly believed that having a pair of tits and a hole provided "everything he needs right here". Men are predators, hunters and gatherers since cave man days. It is their instinct to seek out what fulfills them. No matter what I say, there is no winning this argument.

By C

Typical.

By mimi

Girls always see things differently than men, IF they see it at all. Maybe he was in a different mind set at the time the drama was going on? It's life, move on!!

By ron

Has anybody thought that maybe Rob doesn't kiss and tell?

By James

One of the sad realities of life is that your relationship with someone else, even if you are married, is not the same as their relationship with you. Each of us at one point or another looks back on our lives and feels that one or more persons were very important to us, but we may find that we were not so important to them.
Also,an autobiography rather than a critical biography allows you to put your personal spin on everything!

By patardugno

It's funny, I never even heard that Rob Lowe was ever dating her. If anything the 2 DIFFERENT books should be read by people as an example of how DIFFERENTLY young men & women think of each other in their relationships, & how they either remember or forget each other in their pasts. I never heard anything about Mellisa when she was younger. And the last thing that was said about Rob was that he got in huge trouble for dating a girl 14 yrs old, when he was 17 or 18 yrs old. But it was never mention who she was. Whatever. I think the big difference in the way they remember each other may have something to do with,... how much drama young girls may like or maybe just have to deal with,....& how young men would rather avoid the drama. I'm not saying the young men are not a major cause of most of the drama. But they are usually only in the game until the drama is real & then they are just running for the hills.
It also seems strange that so many teen pregnancies can survive the harshest of conditions, but Mellisa just happened to miscarry for no apparent reason. Rob most probably is convinced that Mellisa had an abortion,...& usually that is the end of a relationship.

By lovechild

In Melissa's book Prairie Tales, she wrote in quite raw honest painful detail of suffering that miscarriage.Before you make such an uninformed,quite viscious accusation publcly,you should make sure you have your facts straight

By Mary

I knew Rob Lowe as a kid, and he used to pull his hair out by huge hunks. He was a very nervous kid with very nuce parents.

By tori

Melissa was on the A list way before Rob ever came onto the scene. She was the highest paid child star on Little House On the Prarie which ran for many years and made her a household name. She also was the youngest actress to get her star on the Hollywood walk of fame which she received when her and Rob were dating. If you don't believe me, look it up!!! Team Melissa!

By ratrare

Didn't he rape some little girl?

By Don Livingston

SO.........!!!donllivi

By daalyada

"whom he dated" should be "who he dated." i hate reading published articles that contain errors.
And "a friend of the actress" isn't a very convincing source when you can't even name the friend. it takes away a lot of credibility from the article.

By ms.r

he taped wemon with out them knowing it till he got cought . shes better off being called an ex.hes a loser

By Norene

Did Rob Lowe mention his marriage to Hilary Swank in his book?

By bayleon02

Chad Lowe was married to Hillary Swank, not Rob.

By Marc L

Just because she still agonizes over their past relationship doesn't mean he has to. Obviously he has moved past it. I don't see the big deal here.

Monday 15 August

By Tiffany Davis

i couldnt agree with you more marcl

By djinngal

She said all there was to say. why bother with a rehash. he could be being kind - some times that's the best thing to do in/about an ugly situation. Why always demand the trash and ugliness? Sometimes one person gleans life lessons and sometimes someone only carries out the trash and leaves it on the curb where everyone can see it rather than just putting it in the can. We all have trash in our lives because we are human, you generally put it in the can to keep the dogs and raccoons from getting in to it.

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