'Growing Pains' Star: Playing a Happy Wife Eased the Agony Of My Real-Life Divorce
By John Latta
Joanna Kerns reveals that her role as the happily married wife of a psychiatrist on the hit sitcom "Growing Pains" helped her through the heartbreak of a painful divorce from her husband of 10 years.
"It was very difficult for me to deal with the divorce, and then go to work and play my character Maggie," confessed the beautiful actress, whose marriage to Richard Kerns ended during last season. "That's when I learned I was an even better actress than I thought.
"I was going through a lot of soulsearching and a lot of self-doubt. THis is my first year of being single after 10 years of marriage, and everything is on my shoulders."
But through it all costar Alan Thicke has kept her laughing, Joanna said in an exclusive interview.
"Alan is a very funny man- I don't know if I've ever met anyone as funny as he is. He's a master of one-liners.
"When you're going through a divorce you feel so much rejection at home, so being on 'Growing Pains' was very nurturing for me. We're a family off the set as well as on- we really care about one another.
"Playing the happiest married woman in America with a loving husband is very interesting when you are going through a divorce.
"What I need to do in real life is find somebody like my TV husband so I can marry him!"
