Brady Bunch bombshell: The dark secret that haunted star actress… and the TV family’s ‘code’ that concealed it until now

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She was the quintessential middle child in America’s favorite blended family.

Jan Brady, the famously dramatic character from the 1970s TV show The Brady Bunch, is still well-known today. So much so, in fact, that Megyn Kelly recently used the character as a comparison to Donald Trump, implying he wasn’t truthful about why he would bomb Iran.

Even though the show concluded in 1974, it remains incredibly popular, demonstrated by the original cast members making a guest appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2021.

Earlier this year, Barry Williams – best known as Greg from The Brady Bunch and a contestant on the reality show I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here! – shared that the actors who played the Brady siblings had all dated each other while filming the show.

Eve Plumb, best known as Jan Brady from the show’s five seasons, hid a significant personal struggle for over ten years, and her co-stars – her on-screen family – helped her do so.

She’s only now sharing her story about her fight with breast cancer in her new memoir. It was a difficult time, as she lost her hair and feared it would end both her career and her life.

In her memoir, Happiness Included, Maureen McCormick (Jan Brady from The Brady Bunch) recounts receiving a frightening medical diagnosis in June 2013, shortly after starting a role in the off-Broadway play, Unbroken Circle.

She describes it as a really positive and energizing period, feeling like her career was getting a fresh start. Unfortunately, that all changed suddenly, and she experienced a difficult year.

Her husband, Ken Pace, had discovered a lump around the size of a walnut on her breast.

And even the initial biopsy was a massive wake-up call to the pain that was to come.

She explains in her book that while she didn’t expect surgery, she wasn’t ready for how the test felt – a needle rapidly and powerfully pierced the lump.

‘The shock of it piercing through so quickly was both physically and emotionally painful.

‘Once I was alone, tears spilled from my eyes.’

She got the life-changing phone call right after finishing the afternoon performance of the show, just two days later.

There was no sugar coating. She was informed that she had cancer.

She says she completely lost focus at that moment, and in a daze, accidentally stumbled onto the sidewalk, feeling like she wasn’t fully connected to reality.

She called Pace and somehow got through the evening performance.

‘The angry and crying scenes came very easily to me that night,’ she writes.

Plumb was determined to keep her medical condition a secret, so her agent skillfully cancelled her theater contract without letting the production team know why.

She only shared what was happening in her life with a small group of close friends – people she knew she could truly trust to keep things private and avoid offering unsolicited advice.

She would receive chemotherapy infusions first, then radiation treatment, and finally surgery to remove the lump.

She intentionally chose a low-profile treatment center, hoping to keep her identity private.

I really prioritized privacy when I was choosing, so I ended up with a place that had little private suites. Each one had a comfy recliner and, best of all, a door I could close for some peace and quiet.

I thought it was the best option for me, but I didn’t like that a nurse had to announce my name loudly in the crowded waiting room every week when my chemotherapy room was ready. It felt like a privacy issue.

‘”Eve Plumb! Eve Plumb! You’re next.”‘

About a week after starting treatment, Pace’s fears came true when she received a call from The National Enquirer. Someone had told the gossip newspaper about Plumb’s cancer, and they wanted details.

Pace, taken by surprise, managed to feign ignorance before hanging up.

According to Plumb, he calmly pretended he didn’t understand what they were discussing.

‘That was the closest we came to it leaking out.’

She describes losing her hair as a result of the treatment – an irony that wasn’t lost on her.

Jan Brady was known for her long blonde hair, and she often fantasized about growing up and getting a completely new haircut.

‘Now all I could do is watch it swirl around the shower drain, clump by clump.’

She explains that she didn’t realize how fast she’d lose her hair, but by Halloween, she had the idea to paint her head silver and participate in the New York City Village Halloween Parade dressed as an alien.

Just when she started to feel normal again with a new wig, she unfortunately lost her eyebrows and eyelashes too.

I noticed my sense of smell was suddenly much stronger, and then I realized it was probably because the hairs inside my nose had fallen out.

Not long after she started losing her hair, she learned that the original cast of The Brady Bunch was reuniting to film a special honoring Florence Henderson, the actress who played Carol Brady and passed away at age 82 in 2016.

Because of her medical treatment, she couldn’t travel to Los Angeles. Instead, she recorded a short video and then personally called Henderson to explain her absence.

Before I could speak, Florence quickly turned to the rest of the cast and explained, “Eve couldn’t be here today because she’s undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.”

Honestly, when I found out about Plumb’s personal life, it was a total shock! It just came out of nowhere. But you know what’s amazing? Those ‘Brady Bunch’ kids had this unspoken rule – they never talked about each other’s private stuff. I’m so grateful for that, because it meant Plumb’s privacy was mostly respected, even with all the drama. It’s just… a beautiful thing, really, that they protected each other like that.

Even though Florence accidentally told people, my ‘Brady Bunch’ co-stars kept my treatments private, and the press never found out about it, according to Plumb.

Going through chemotherapy completely drained me, and it took a long time to recover. Thankfully, after radiation and surgery, doctors said I was ‘cured.’ It was such a relief to see my hair slowly start growing back – little by little, like soft feathers – and to finally feel my energy returning, even if it was a gradual process.

To celebrate her recovery from cancer, she and Pace took a trip to Sweden, jokingly calling it her ‘I Survived’ vacation.

‘It was like being set free and viewing it all with a fresh perspective,’ she writes.

After being cancer-free for ten years, she shares that she and her husband, Ken, have continued to travel extensively and don’t intend to slow down.

 

Actress Eve Plumb, best known as Jan Brady, will release her memoir, Happiness Included, on April 28th. It’s published by Citadel, a division of Penguin Random House.

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2026-04-28 01:07