Ed Begley Jr. learned life-changing information about his biological mother in an unusual way.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Begley reflected on discovering the woman he thought had been his mother, Amanda, was in fact his stepmom.
“Just before I turned 16, I was with my father en route to take my driver’s license test. On my birth certificate, the box for my mother’s name was blank. Amanda had died of cancer in 1957, when I was 7,” he recalled.
“I asked about the empty space. Dad was silent but eventually told me that my real mother was Sandy, someone I long thought was a family friend.”
He continued, “Later he told me Sandy had been an NBC page with whom he had an affair. The result was my sister, Allene, then me, 11 months later. Nothing in our family was what it seemed. Our older brother Tom turned out to be our cousin.”
Begley explained that he and his sister would meet with Sandy regularly when he was younger and they both enjoyed her company.
However, he admitted that when he learned the truth about their relationship, he “felt cheated and lied to.”
“I met Sandy as my mother for the first time at 16. She never married. Her only family was her mother, and she didn’t hide us from her. We’d see Sandy about once or twice a year, and she saw my success before passing in 1998,” he said.
Begley went on to explain that he realized he should have felt “grateful” to learn about his biological mother, and that his lack of gratitude contributed to a substance abuse problem.
He shared that he got his first acting job at 17 on “My Three Sons,” and enjoyed the budding career.
“But little work followed, and I was upset that my mother’s identity had been hidden from me for so long. Both led me to start drinking and stealing pills from the medicine cabinet,” he said.
The “Best in Show” star got sober in 1979 and said that’s when he “began to grow up.”
Begley was married to his first wife, Ingrid Taylor, from 1976 to 1989. The couple had two children together, a son, Nicholas, and a daughter, Amanda. In 2000, he married actress Rachelle Carson, and together they have a daughter, Hayden.
In 2016, the “St. Elsewhere” star was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but told The Wall Street Journal he’s doing well.
“I rarely tremble. My wife did enormous research, and I have a great neurologist,” he said, adding, “Once again, I’m very lucky.”