This Girl Did Not Believe in Marriage until She Met Single Dad — Living with Her 4 Stepsons Was a ‘Disaster'

• This girl grew up believing that marriage was one-sided.
• She was famously single most of her adult life as a result.
• That was until she met a single man with four kids and once said that living together was a "disaster."

This girl saw firsthand what her parents' marriage was like and did not want anything to do with marriage as an adult. However, things changed later in life.

During a January 2021 interview on the "Death, Sex & Money" podcast, the girl spoke candidly about her views on marriage and also discussed her love life.

"A lot of people wanted to marry me," she said, adding the only issue was that she did not want to get married. In her early thirties, she was a happily single individual. The girl revealed:

"I had already been a bridesmaid literally about seventeen times, and I was godmother by the thousand time. Some of my girlfriends were already divorced, with one or two children, and I thought, what a mess."

In the early 1970s, the girl was starring in a TV show that she also produced about a single aspiring actress living in New York. The girl's character did not want to get married on-screen. When asked in real life what she thought about marriage at that point in her life, she expressed:

"I thought it was a very bad institution for women. And it was nothing that I wanted to be a part of. I was very happily single. I was living the life I wanted to live."

However, the girl clarified that it was not to say that she did not believe that she could be faithful or did not believe she could love someone. She explained:

"I just didn't believe marriage was a good place for a woman. I just thought it was a place for one and a half persons."

The girl further said she thought one person would have to support the other person's dreams. This is what she witnessed growing up as a child with her parents.

Her mother gave up her singing career to support her father's acting career. The girl explained she could not see "a good model" in that, adding because she could not see it, she could not be it.

Who Is the Girl Who Did Not Want to Get Married?

The girl who had reservations about the marriage institution is actress Marlo Thomas. She revealed what it is she feared about commitment in a December 1977 interview, saying:

"I was always scared of marriage. I thought that I would have to become another person, that I wouldn't be able to be me, that I would sort of be living a lie."

However, her mindset changed after meeting her now husband, television pioneer Phil Donahue. The couple met on "The Phil Donahue Show." During a joint interview in May 2020, Donahue raved about his love's beauty upon seeing her for the first time, saying she was "very, very pretty."

As for Thomas, she too was attracted to the TV host and was instantly "smitten with him," she recalled. He asked her out to dinner the following night, and their romance developed from there.

Thomas Married at Age 42 & Became a Stepmom of Four

Thomas later moved in with Donahue, who lived with his four sons, Jim, Michael, Daniel, and Kevin, while his daughter Mary lived with her mother. The boys were between 11 and 16 at the time, and it was quite an adjustment for Thomas, who had lived alone for most of her independent adult life.

The author spoke candidly about her living experience with Donahue's children during a March 1986 interview and described the setup as an "Army camp," adding:

"It was just a disaster. Everything was a mess. Everything was broken."

Still, Thomas embraced being a stepmom, although she admitted she did not want to be one before. She said while the kids were in and out of college, they went to her Manhattan apartment for vacations.

"That Girl" alum once admitted to liking her husband's offspring, saying it was a "treat" spending time with them. Regarding step mothering, Thomas said she had to learn to be a "nice" and "good" stepparent.

She established a friendship with them and earned their trust, clearly showing she was not their mother's replacement. The more she spent time with them daily, the more caring and mothering she became.

Thomas divulged her stepkids were "sweet" toward her when they met her. She added that being loved by them is a "great accomplishment" to her. As for Donahue, he said he "prayed" that his sons would be kind and accepting of his new love.

The media personality and the activist lived together for several years before they wed in May 1980. Thomas was 42 years old then, and the couple has been married for 43 years.