Simple Faith with Rusty George

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Intro/Outro
Welcome to Leading Simple with Rusty George. Our goal is to make following Jesus and leading others a bit more simple. Here's your host, Rusty George.

00;00;18;19 - 00;00;42;23
Rusty George
Hey, welcome to Leading Simple. I'm your host, Rusty George. Well, I tell you what, I got a phone call from my dear friend John Gates, and he said to me, Rusty, does the name Cheryl Ladd ring a bell? I said, Don. Of course it does. I remember Cheryl Ladd as a Charlie's angel, and he said, Well, it just so happens I'm helping her get a book out and I'd love to have her come on your show to promote it.

00;00;42;29 - 00;01;04;14
Rusty George
I said you called the right guy. Never thought I'd have a Charlie's Angel on the show, but, boy, did we ever. She is an incredibly sweet woman of faith that I think you're really going to enjoy hearing from and hearing her story of how she grew up in a home that had faith and then had to make her faith her own and navigate all of the ups and downs of Hollywood.

00;01;04;29 - 00;01;23;02
Rusty George
She was so kind as to give up some of her time and share her story. And I know you're really going to enjoy this conversation. This month, we are talking about how a real life church is putting on its Christmas services in a very unique way. And I want to invite everybody to check it out, even if you're not technically a part of real life.

00;01;23;03 - 00;01;42;05
Rusty George
You can just go to one of our services online on the weekends, starting on Thursday night at 7:00 Sunday morning at 830, ten and 1130. All of these are Pacific Times, real life church, dawg. And you can join in at our Christmas at the movies if you've never been part of one of our at the Movies series. It is church like you've never experienced before.

00;01;42;15 - 00;02;07;14
Rusty George
As we use holiday movies to highlight great, timeless truths about what Christmas is all about. So check us out there. Unfortunately, because of copyright rules, we cannot show these things later or on demand, so you have to watch them when they air at Thursday nights, 7:00 Sunday, 830, ten or 1130, all Pacific Time. Well, love to have you join us for any of those.

00;02;07;20 - 00;02;31;21
Rusty George
And here's my conversation with Cheryl Ladd. Well, Cheryl, thank you so much for joining the podcast. I've got to be honest with you, this is a little bit of a of a strange moment for me to actually meet a Charlie's Angel. And I feel like I'm violating my mom's rules because I wasn't allowed to watch your show when I was growing up, so I had to watch it later.

00;02;32;23 - 00;02;34;27
Cheryl Ladd
Okay. I understand that.

00;02;35;14 - 00;02;57;06
Rusty George
I was pretty young at the time. Well, listen, it really is great to have you on the podcast. I'm grateful for the introduction that we got a little bit ago. And for our listeners that probably only know you from TV and and film. Give us a little background. Tell us, you know, where you grew up and a little bit about your background before California.

00;02;58;03 - 00;03;27;14
Cheryl Ladd
Well, I was lucky to grow up in here on South Dakota. Lovely little town there. And my dad was an engineer on the railroad and my mother was a housewife who did just everything. And she is amazing chicken. So she always found they always found ways to make money as young couples. You know, my dad was on the railroad working, but she was never I never remember my mother sitting down and doing nothing.

00;03;28;04 - 00;03;36;00
Cheryl Ladd
It's really interesting. She was either sewing or making things or designing something. She was very, very creative.

00;03;37;09 - 00;03;40;07
Rusty George
So this was in South Dakota, is that right?

00;03;40;18 - 00;03;41;05
Cheryl Ladd
Yes.

00;03;41;10 - 00;03;52;29
Rusty George
Well, tell us about it, because most people that are on, you know, that listen to this program, have never been to South Dakota. I've actually driven through it, but there's not a lot there. So what did you find your time doing?

00;03;54;18 - 00;04;17;00
Cheryl Ladd
Well, I don't know if I got the creativity from my mother, but I was always singing, dancing, taking dancing lessons and loving movies. I remember. And it was just such a perfect place to grow up as a child. I felt very safe. We are all very safe. And, you know, we did all the things that little kids did.

00;04;17;00 - 00;04;41;04
Cheryl Ladd
Then we, you know, went trick or treating and went to the park and rode our bikes all over town. We had such freedom and such imaginations. We'd build forts in people's backyards and it was just so idyllic. I feel very fortunate that I got to grow up there with parents who loved each other and love their children.

00;04;41;18 - 00;04;42;29
Rusty George
How many siblings do you have?

00;04;43;18 - 00;04;55;25
Cheryl Ladd
I have an older sister, two years a little older than I am, and I have a brother who is six years younger and then I have a brother that's 17 years younger.

00;04;56;09 - 00;05;15;06
Rusty George
Okay. So growing up South Dakota, you told me you were a bit of a tomboy, played outside a lot. Just what do you remember about your parents and and faith? And was that a big part of your life? Was that something that was talked about much? Tell us a little bit about that.

00;05;15;29 - 00;05;52;24
Cheryl Ladd
Well, it's interesting. I think that, first of all and my my mother took us to church. We went to Sunday school. My sister and I, and we loved it. And we were just a few blocks from the Presbyterian Church on Main Street. And yeah, we loved going to Sunday School. And it it's interesting that my father, we never really discussed religion, and yet I felt that my father was really connect did but he was a trapper and and loved to be out in the wilderness and it's in that generation.

00;05;52;24 - 00;06;17;05
Cheryl Ladd
It was something I mentioned this someone the other day, too, that you didn't talk about religion and you didn't talk about politics. You wanted to have friends. It was really weird. Now I can't wait to talk to people about the Lord and my journey with the Lord and all of that. I'm it's a whole different world now for us.

00;06;17;18 - 00;06;34;10
Rusty George
You know, it is interesting that you would assume, because it seems so volatile to talk about politics and even in some cases religion today back then, you would assume that it would be easier. But you're saying that it really was it. They didn't talk about it much. You just you did your work. You went about your family life and it was what it was.

00;06;34;11 - 00;06;34;26
Rusty George
Is that right?

00;06;35;13 - 00;07;01;01
Cheryl Ladd
Yes. And I think it was just kind of an unwritten rule for grown ups. You just you made friends and you were good people. I mean, my parents had great friends and wonderful people. And you did your work and your prayers were yours. Your conversation with God belonged to you. Mm hmm. Interesting.

00;07;01;15 - 00;07;26;18
Rusty George
Yeah. It really is. So you grow up with this faith being impressed upon you, but not. Not lauded over you, and then somehow you get to California. So connect the dots for us there. I mean, I would assume that everybody in South Dakota wants to get out to something more exciting, but maybe some want a state with a more Norman Rockwell kind of life.

00;07;26;18 - 00;07;29;03
Rusty George
But but you were one that wanted to get out, is that right?

00;07;29;24 - 00;07;57;01
Cheryl Ladd
Well, I knew I wanted to sing, dance and act the minute I saw a couple of younger actors in films, I thought, hey, I could do that. And I then, of course, I was taking dancing lessons, and my my dad got me a guitar, so I got to learn how to play the guitar. And I just I just had this dream that I wanted to own.

00;07;57;06 - 00;08;21;26
Cheryl Ladd
And then I got to go see visit my cousin in Saint Louis. And they had a big municipal outdoor. They called it the I guess it was just they put on literally put on plays like New York plays that would travel through. And I got to go see my first real play. Wow. And there were a couple of children in it.

00;08;22;07 - 00;08;45;00
Cheryl Ladd
And I thought I looked at them and went. I could do that. I know I can do that. And it was just so real for me. And then as my sister says, you were you were so weird. Cheryl, you're just so weird when you were growing up because I'm I try on different hairdos and wigs and guts. I mean, my sister could just go, mother, do something about her.

00;08;47;00 - 00;09;12;07
Cheryl Ladd
And my mother would say, Oh, honey, just let her be her. I mean, we look and my my eye when I look back, I can see that my sister was suffering a bit for my weird antics. And it's so funny because we were like, we were always really close, but we were entirely different in our view of what we wanted in the world.

00;09;12;26 - 00;09;20;06
Cheryl Ladd
And I you know, she's been my biggest cheerleader my whole life. Well, next to my mother.

00;09;21;23 - 00;09;34;12
Rusty George
You so you you were at the time, you know, a kid that wanted to perform and wanted to sing and dance and and getting to California was not even so much about acting as it was about music. Is that right?

00;09;34;19 - 00;09;57;23
Cheryl Ladd
That's right. I started out singing with the band and we were kind of a they were wonderful musicians. A couple of them were in the Army band and a brilliant piano player. And yes, so they had a singer and she became ill. So they had all these jobs booked, so they were just going crazy trying to find somebody to sing.

00;09;57;23 - 00;10;19;22
Cheryl Ladd
And I had done some, you know, some singing in school and in plays and and around town. Little luncheon things for the ladies when they had a ladies lunch and I would come and sing. And so the guy that was at the radio station said, well, I know a somebody that can sing, would you like to meet her?

00;10;19;22 - 00;10;45;25
Cheryl Ladd
And he said, Yes, we're desperate. Just yes. So I auditioned and he asked me how old I was and I said, 18. He goes, I don't think so. I said, okay, well, 17. He was, are you 17? He said, I said, Not quite yet, but I'm going to be 17 this summer anyway. I had to talk my parents into letting me go sing with the band.

00;10;46;04 - 00;10;52;22
Cheryl Ladd
He said, Could you, Lou, can you learn 30 songs in two weeks? I said, Absolutely. I mean, I didn't know.

00;10;54;04 - 00;10;54;28
Rusty George
That sounds doable.

00;10;54;28 - 00;11;20;08
Cheryl Ladd
I wasn't going to say no. I was going to try to have this opportunity anyway. As it worked out, I had to. This was the scandal. I had to stop being a cheerleader if I was going to work on, you know, o on the weekends, Friday nights and Saturday nights in the clubs, I had to have a B average, at least if I saw or my parents wouldn't allow it.

00;11;20;24 - 00;11;26;26
Cheryl Ladd
So I had to keep my schoolwork up and I started singing in nightclubs that I wasn't old enough to be in.

00;11;29;11 - 00;11;33;10
Rusty George
So was this a weekly event or just randomly here and there?

00;11;34;10 - 00;11;43;26
Cheryl Ladd
I would say sometimes a two weekends a month, sometimes three, then then one, and it was kind of like that.

00;11;44;27 - 00;11;59;15
Rusty George
So you make your way out to California to be able to be part of this band. And of seeing how much of that did you do before you finally got a job or finally got paid to be a singer? And then how did that translate into acting?

00;12;00;03 - 00;12;28;10
Cheryl Ladd
Yeah, when I got to California, I had my 19th birthday there, so I had had now some experience of performing in front of people in all of that. And actually it's interesting because the gentleman that became our manager saw me singing in somewhere in Wyoming and he said, Kid, I've seen them all. I've handled them all. I've I've watched them come and go, he said, And you've got it.

00;12;29;17 - 00;12;48;16
Cheryl Ladd
I've got it. I went. I went because I thought he was going to fire me. I don't know why, you know, I just had this feeling like, why does he want to talk to me by myself? And I said, If you want to end up in California, if you guys want to come out that direction, he said, I think I can really help you and I think you've got it.

00;12;48;27 - 00;13;14;23
Cheryl Ladd
Nice. Okay. So we ended up in California. Now the other band members had families and jobs. They were much older than me. So they went back to to here on and I stayed and stayed there and I went on my first audition and it was for the singing voice of Melody and Josie and the Pussycats cartoon series. And I got my first job.

00;13;14;23 - 00;13;16;07
Cheryl Ladd
Wow. Exciting.

00;13;16;28 - 00;13;23;27
Rusty George
Yeah. How did that feel? You finally get out here and then you get a job. I mean, did you feel like, man, I've arrived?

00;13;23;27 - 00;13;47;26
Cheryl Ladd
Oh, yes. Well, several great, great things happened. I made some great friends. And one of the songwriters for the for the show and another one of the singers and the three of us got an apartment, a two bedroom apartment together because we couldn't afford anything, but we were getting paychecks. So we decided we were going to get our apartment.

00;13;48;05 - 00;14;07;03
Cheryl Ladd
And then I bought a used white Mustang car. Interesting. Ironically, Mustang. And I remember driving over to the coast, you know, at the beach and in Malibu and thinking, wow, just doesn't get any better than this.

00;14;07;11 - 00;14;07;22
Rusty George
Right?

00;14;08;03 - 00;14;28;05
Cheryl Ladd
Like $2,000 in my bank account. And I just remember thinking, this is what I'm supposed to do and all signs are pointing to. And then I had to get into acting class and I really wanted to learn my craft in a proper way and and I took it seriously. So.

00;14;29;18 - 00;14;52;08
Rusty George
You know, I've always I've always wondered when when somebody aspires to be an actor and then they start acting. Maybe they've had some classes, maybe they get some classes along the way. What's the biggest thing you had to get used to? Is it the, you know, knowing how to hit your mark? Is it knowing how to keep, you know, facing the camera?

00;14;52;08 - 00;15;02;10
Rusty George
Is it interacting with your costars? What's the most difficult thing? You got to learn how to do that many of us don't think about when it comes to becoming an actor?

00;15;02;10 - 00;15;31;01
Cheryl Ladd
I think the fact that you have to bring every ounce of self, the present, your presence, you have to bring it all you can't. Creating a character is is kind of a oxymoron because you are the character. You just be the character. You you know who she is. You know things about her, what she is after within the scene.

00;15;31;01 - 00;15;54;12
Cheryl Ladd
And then you bring yourself to it and just make it as honest and real and interesting. I mean, I, I think you you just try to be real because people see it. There are people who watch things like, Oh, I don't like that actor very much. I just see him acting all the time. And my husband said, you know, the best actors are the one ones.

00;15;54;12 - 00;16;22;17
Cheryl Ladd
You never catch them acting. Hmm. I think that's very true. And it takes sometimes it really takes a lot of not just practice it kind of in acting classes. It was just driven into us that that this is a real moment and this is you. Everything about you is this character. So bring it, bring you. And it was good.

00;16;22;18 - 00;16;43;09
Rusty George
It that's great advice. Okay. So what everybody wants to know is how did you get on Charlie's Angels? How does that happen? I mean, were there several acting jobs and gigs and commercials and all that you did before that? Did somebody discover you that had happened out of the blue? Did you try to get that job? Tell us that whole journey.

00;16;44;15 - 00;17;14;25
Cheryl Ladd
Well, I had been as I said, I was there since 19. I had done lots of television shows, Happy Days and Partridge Family of all kinds of shows. So I had a lot under my belt, which was good. And I actually got to do a film, which is where I met my husband, David Ladd. And so when I was 20, I had just had Jordan shoes and things were just rocking and rolling.

00;17;14;25 - 00;17;45;06
Cheryl Ladd
I was getting more work than than I ever thought I was being able to, to really pick and choose as opposed to just say yes, which, which was pretty great. So I was I wouldn't say perfectly well-established, but I people were aware of me all over Los Angeles and, you know, directors and producers and things. And I got a call that Farrah Fawcett was leaving Charlie's Angels.

00;17;45;16 - 00;18;11;21
Cheryl Ladd
And I had worked for Aaron probably three or four times. And and and he was a fan of mine to begin with. And he called and said that he wanted me to take take over, and I just wasn't feeling it. I was like, I don't first of all, Farrah was the biggest. She was the queen of everything and just so popular and huge.

00;18;11;21 - 00;18;38;27
Cheryl Ladd
And and it was kind of concerning that she wanted to walk away from a hit show. But, I mean, she had her thoughts about who she wanted to be, but I just didn't know how somebody was going to walk in there and and make it work. So I said thank you, but no thank you. And then I went to my acting class and I told my friends that I had been offered the part making and they said, Oh, that's fantastic.

00;18;38;27 - 00;19;02;08
Cheryl Ladd
Good for you. I said, No. I said, No. They go, Are you out of your mind now? Did you not want Cheryl, think about this. It's it's a huge hit show. So then they made me think about it a little bit. And in the meantime, Aaron saw hundreds of girls from New York to L.A. all across the country.

00;19;02;10 - 00;19;27;15
Cheryl Ladd
So a lot of young actresses to come in. And he just didn't find who he wanted. And the cute story is my husband and I were walking into the Palm restaurant one evening and Aaron was sitting there with his wife and his friend and them. And the guy had and I heard the story later. I didn't know it at the moment, but he he was saying to Aaron, Aaron, you'll find somebody.

00;19;27;15 - 00;19;53;02
Cheryl Ladd
There are so many great, beautiful, talented girls in this town. You'll find somebody. And I walked in. I walked in the door and he said that girl could take her place. And Aaron said, That's Cheryl. She said, no. So the next morning we went over and had a chat, everything. That morning he called me, so I went in to see him and he said, Why don't you want to do the show?

00;19;53;02 - 00;20;16;25
Cheryl Ladd
I said, Aaron, nobody can go in there and try to be Farrah Fawcett and what would I play? He said, What do you mean, what would you play? I said, Well, I don't know if she could be funny. He said, Why couldn't she be funny? And I said, Oh, well, and if she's, you know, people root for the underdog and if she's trying really hard and and make some mistakes so people can relate.

00;20;17;04 - 00;20;38;05
Cheryl Ladd
And he said, Oh, I really like that. And then Aaron's genius, he said, I've got it. What if you're Farrah's little sister and you're already part of the family? I looked at him and I thought, Now I know who I am and who I'm going to be, and I'm part of the family. I said, I'm in and that's how it happened.

00;20;39;18 - 00;20;50;24
Rusty George
So our mutual friend Don Gates was telling me that you told him a story about showing up on set with a t shirt on. Tell us that story about what your t shirt said.

00;20;51;03 - 00;21;26;25
Cheryl Ladd
Well, Farrah was married to Lee Majors, so she was Farrah Fawcett Majors. And I came on and I had a t shirt that said Farrah Fawcett minor, and people laughed. And, you know, I broke the ice and everybody was nervous. And I did this circus episode first because I think ABC wanted to see me and see me in a full episode and all of that.

00;21;26;25 - 00;21;45;29
Cheryl Ladd
So that was kind of my audition, but it was not really an audition. They had already sacked me, but I think they wanted to see that show. But that wasn't the first show that aired. Obviously, it was me coming through the door in Charlie's office and the rest is history.

00;21;47;00 - 00;22;08;22
Rusty George
So tell us about just I mean, you come on this show, it's a hit show. You've got big shoes to fill. And they were you know, you and Aaron have created the character you want to be. But how did you deal with the the expectations people had, the perceptions people had? Obviously, you seem to have, you know, a sense of humor to take it all in stride.

00;22;08;22 - 00;22;26;15
Rusty George
But were there days you felt like, you know, the the tabloids or the media really kind of got you down because maybe they were comparing you to Farrah or you weren't who they expected or whatever. I mean, we all battled some comparison in our minds. How did you deal with that?

00;22;27;05 - 00;22;49;13
Cheryl Ladd
It I just sort of put my nose to the grindstone, put the blinders on and said, I'm I signed up for this. I'm going to do the best I can. And it's going to be what it's going to be. And, you know, and I had a two year old daughter at home. I had a lot of things that were really important to me.

00;22;49;21 - 00;23;21;08
Cheryl Ladd
And doing a good job was one, but also being a mother and, you know, it was becoming harder and harder because I was working ten, 12 hour days, five days a week, then in the meantime, doing video, you know, photo sessions, because you had to have constantly had had new pictures and the girls together and what clothes. And then you had to have all these fittings and then yeah, it was it was a whirlwind.

00;23;21;11 - 00;24;02;28
Cheryl Ladd
And I really, you know, I think I did well the first year, but it got harder and harder and harder as it went along because I, I, I was losing my family. I was losing my relationship with my daughter. I mean, and she didn't want to come to the set all the time. She wanted to go and be with her friends and play and it was it was just incredibly crushing as as far as being so removed from being a mother and a wife and all of these things.

00;24;02;28 - 00;24;32;10
Cheryl Ladd
And it took its toll. You know, I lost my marriage and I you know, there's always there's always the dark side of something. There's always something over there. I think that that you have to deal with and look at even when you're just going 18,000 miles an hour with your career, that things were breaking down and I didn't have time to notice them.

00;24;32;20 - 00;24;33;29
Cheryl Ladd
So it was tough.

00;24;34;12 - 00;24;53;24
Rusty George
When do you think you did notice? Hey, let me interrupt this podcast for just a second to remind you, this Christmas, check out one of our Christmas services, Real Life Church Dawg for service times. Love to see you there. Now back to the show. When do you think you did notice?

00;24;53;24 - 00;25;25;25
Cheryl Ladd
I think in the middle of the second year on I was it during my hiatus I was doing, I never stopped working and I think that was a mistake because I was doing specials and being on other people's specials and my own specials and recording. I becoming a recording artist. I when I look back, I even I can't believe how hard I worked and everybody said, no, we got a strike while the iron is hot.

00;25;25;25 - 00;25;53;10
Cheryl Ladd
And all the advice I was getting is push forward, push forward, push forward. And I mean, I got to the place where I was. I had a really lost feeling like, who am I? What am I doing? Why am I doing this? I don't know if I could keep doing this. And I just I just felt part of my life that was very important to me, just crumbling and and it did.

00;25;53;27 - 00;25;55;02
Cheryl Ladd
And it was really sad.

00;25;55;20 - 00;26;12;03
Rusty George
Were there people in your life you felt you could talk to about this? Were there costars that you think they get it or maybe even or, you know, or are you talking to any kind of a maybe your agent or a therapist or whatever that, you know, kind of gave you advice along the way?

00;26;13;05 - 00;26;33;04
Cheryl Ladd
No, I didn't do any of those smart things. It just put nose to the grindstone and just kept going and kept going and kept going until I literally kind of had a breakdown. I mean, I, I, I cried for three days straight. I couldn't get out of bed. I was just, I, I wasn't coping with it at all.

00;26;33;20 - 00;26;39;03
Cheryl Ladd
So, you know, then I went to see somebody and it was just a lot.

00;26;40;10 - 00;26;52;07
Rusty George
Where do you think God was in all of this? It was obviously he's there. Did you notice him that had you kind of put him on the back burner? Where was your relationship with him during this?

00;26;53;08 - 00;27;24;01
Cheryl Ladd
I didn't have time for him either. I just was like that little rat on that wheel. Yeah. When it hit, it hit like that. And I lost track of him and myself and my marriage and all of it. It was just so heavy and overwhelming. And I think that's why I crashed, because I needed God, I needed help and I needed to him.

00;27;24;01 - 00;28;05;05
Cheryl Ladd
And that's when I started really working myself back into my relationship with God and really viewing the marriage and realizing that that it wasn't going to work. And that was really hard to face. Talked about a lot about that. And in the end, I grew up and I really, really trusted him. I really trusted God in every every at every turn, things started to become more clear, more clear, more clear.

00;28;05;17 - 00;28;38;25
Cheryl Ladd
And and I knew that he was still with me. I wasn't sure what life was going to be like without my marriage or anything. And I was still in his I called it Penitentiary Fox doing Charlie's Angels because I had signed a contract, you know, and I wasn't going to walk away and maybe I should have. But now I did the right thing.

00;28;39;04 - 00;28;59;01
Cheryl Ladd
I honored my contract. I pulled myself up by the bootstraps. I started talking to the Lord and he started giving me more and more strength, more and more clarity. Be clarity about who I was. I kind of got back to Cheri. Stop. The more. Yeah. And who she was.

00;29;00;26 - 00;29;30;00
Rusty George
That's interesting. You kind of go back to who you really are. I think that even though not many of us can relate to having to deal with, you know, stardom and fame and and the bright lights that you dealt with. But we've all had those seasons of our life where we think when things eventually settle down or things will this is just a season one day or get calmer and then a season turns into, you know, a decade and maybe even a lifetime.

00;29;30;15 - 00;29;46;01
Rusty George
And a lot of us have worked really hard and hit the wall or crashed and burned. And it sounds like there were some key moments along that hitting the bottom part for you of you turn to God rather than just worked harder. Am I getting that right?

00;29;46;21 - 00;30;27;14
Cheryl Ladd
Yes, absolutely right. I realized that my rudder was broken completely. And yeah, I just I just started praying more every day and getting stronger and feeling like and I talked to him a lot. So we had a lot of conversations and I had a lot of tears. And I just as I said, he just the more I could breathe and trust him and realize, you know, you have to really take a real look at what was going on in my life and who was in my life.

00;30;27;14 - 00;31;06;03
Cheryl Ladd
And and he just helped me quietly, slowly by slowly get stronger and get clear and really be able to face the fact that my marriage was over and that I had to just be honest about that and deal with it. And that was hard. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, I got remarried to somebody who when we were together, we said, if we're going to be together, we're going, we're going to church, we're taking our girls to Sunday school.

00;31;06;03 - 00;31;14;07
Cheryl Ladd
We are putting God first in our lives and that and we're married 42 years now, almost 42 in January.

00;31;14;07 - 00;31;24;00
Rusty George
Well, congratulations on that. That's fantastic. So you get remarried. How old was your daughter when you got married the second time?

00;31;24;00 - 00;31;27;24
Cheryl Ladd
She was five and a half. Six. Okay, that's true.

00;31;28;15 - 00;31;29;00
Rusty George
Okay.

00;31;29;18 - 00;31;45;04
Cheryl Ladd
So my husband's daughter was a year and a half younger, so we had these two little girls that we became a real family and they adored each other. Now they're grown up women. Right?

00;31;45;23 - 00;31;50;02
Rusty George
Well, that that's a that's a beautiful ending to that that chapter of your life.

00;31;50;12 - 00;31;50;19
Cheryl Ladd
And.

00;31;50;29 - 00;32;08;18
Rusty George
Professionally, Charlie's Angels ends. Did you find it hard to define yourself post Charlie's Angels, or had you done enough of the self work, the God work, the new marriage that you had an identity beyond Charlie's Angels?

00;32;08;27 - 00;32;41;26
Cheryl Ladd
I did. I really felt whole and capable and much stronger. And I did know that when the girls were small, I was not going to do another series. It is just to to too much. But to be able to go away and do a film for four or five weeks that I could handle, and often the girls would in the family would come with me, at least for parts of it, you know.

00;32;41;26 - 00;33;07;00
Cheryl Ladd
And so, so it was so nice to be able to be home and be home when the kids are back from school. And, and, you know, and then we we had a real family life. We played a lot of games, you know, just charades and fun, things like that, and had a group of friends who had children. So it all became healthy.

00;33;07;24 - 00;33;09;01
Cheryl Ladd
I know.

00;33;09;21 - 00;33;16;08
Rusty George
So this was while you're still in California and you told me that you were living in Los Angeles but then moved up to Santa Barbara, is that right?

00;33;16;19 - 00;33;40;00
Cheryl Ladd
Yes, up in the Santa Ynez Valley, when our girls were in high school, we thought it was really important to get them out of L.A. while they were in school. And it's so cute because this little town we lived in, Santa Ynez, Solvang, a lot of people know about solving that community. Yes. And that's where they went. And graduated from high school eventually.

00;33;40;13 - 00;34;06;01
Cheryl Ladd
And it was so good for them. They were in the school plays. It was like in a way, the way I grew up in South Dakota, it was much more like that there. And I'll never forget overhearing Jordan saying to her friend, And what's it like? Let me think, she said, It's kind of like that movie Grease. So that was pretty throwback.

00;34;07;21 - 00;34;25;13
Cheryl Ladd
Yeah, that just made me laugh. And they they just it was they were thriving there. They were in a good, safe place. And, you know, it was a small town environment and everybody kind of knew everybody. And that was a good thing and that was a really good time for them both.

00;34;26;24 - 00;34;46;04
Rusty George
You know, there's this podcast is called Leading Simple, where we always try to find a way to simplify some of the most difficult things in life. But some of the things that we're talking about here today, they weren't simple that you went through, you know, getting getting back into your relationship with God. That was probably the easiest thing you could do.

00;34;46;04 - 00;35;10;03
Rusty George
But even starting out another relationship and and having a marriage that goes the distance and those kind of things for our audience, that there's some people out there that they have hit rock bottom when it comes to workaholism, what would you say to them about how to get out of that?

00;35;10;03 - 00;35;41;12
Cheryl Ladd
I would say, first of all, it's asking for help and just really looking at yourself in the mirror and say, is is is this my joy and why am I doing this? Why am I beating myself up and getting on that treadmill and and making that the only thing in my life that is that is overwhelmingly important. And all of those things, I just I really I just really think that it's it's not worth it.

00;35;41;28 - 00;36;15;07
Cheryl Ladd
It's not worth the celebrity, the money that all of that is you know, I'm not putting any of it down. You work hard, you get paid. I mean, all of that is part of life, but it's not it's not the deepest and most valuable part of life. And I learned that so well and with such grace from the Lord that, yeah, I've been I've been a happy camper pretty much ever since.

00;36;16;22 - 00;36;41;21
Rusty George
Well, that is a remarkable story there, that you just you've corrected it and then moved on. That is incredible. Okay. What about for somebody out there going through a divorce and they've got a young child or children involved in the process, they're thinking, boy, I don't want to put them in a bad situation going forward. What advice would you give to them?

00;36;41;21 - 00;37;06;24
Cheryl Ladd
Get help, get counseling no matter what. If they if the marriage is truly over, be kind be kind to your ex, be kind to the kids, be thoughtful, talk things through. Don't let them go in the room. Close the door and and not talk to you. And that takes some do it because your kids don't want to be they love both of you.

00;37;06;24 - 00;37;40;01
Cheryl Ladd
They're going to love both parents, whether you two are together or not. And never, never, never try to put down the other parents. That is a no. Look, that person is struggling, too, and that you married that person there. So there's some really good stuff in that person. The fact that the two of you are not going to make it doesn't mean that you can't be kind and respectful and all of the things you need to be to each other.

00;37;40;24 - 00;38;09;10
Rusty George
That's so good. Okay, what about you've had a marriage of 42 years. That's incredible. What have you learned along the way that has made it so fulfilling? Because there had to be ups and downs and highs and lows through all of that, your people, that just happens. But what would you say to our audience of how to kind of here's the the simplest way to make a marriage great?

00;38;09;10 - 00;38;48;07
Cheryl Ladd
Well, first, I'm a saint. I mean, of course, my husband was and I may very patient man. We laugh a lot. Just what we're doing right now would be, you know, no, no, life is smooth. It's hills and valleys and then smooth and then hills and valleys and then smooth. And I mean, you have to you have to really find a way to first be kind and really try to speak with that person that you love so much.

00;38;48;07 - 00;39;17;01
Cheryl Ladd
If things are not or heading in a way that is not working for one or the other of you and just, you know, just remember how much you love each other. And that's what I think in my first marriage, it just it was like we kind of lost that part. Everything was so overwhelming and we lost that. And if you ever get an opportunity to to have that again, you know how precious it is.

00;39;17;15 - 00;39;40;13
Cheryl Ladd
So just just pour the love that don't be shy about it. Put your arms around somebody or walk up to somebody and say, I'm having a bad day. I need a hug. Do it. Don't. Don't say, Well, I wish he'd hug me. No, ask him. He would love to hug you. And that's what we do. We just try to be really present and real and every moment.

00;39;40;13 - 00;40;02;20
Cheryl Ladd
And, you know, sometimes I go in a room and read my books. He's reading his books and we see each other later in the in the day. And that's great, too. We have a relationship of that is such a deep friendship and I mean, we're in love with each other, but we haven't really we started out as friends.

00;40;02;29 - 00;40;26;12
Cheryl Ladd
So that's friendship is still an and communication is really important. I know. And don't try to be the boss either of you. There is no boss. There's the two of you together. Nobody tells anybody how it's going to be. You talk through how you both would like it to be.

00;40;26;12 - 00;40;47;16
Rusty George
Those are really good words. That's a master class in marriage right there. I know that you were in the process of writing a book and you want to put some of your stories and life into written form that will bless other people. What do you think the message is that you're trying to get out about just your own journey and certainly about your relationship with God?

00;40;48;04 - 00;41;17;27
Cheryl Ladd
Love that he is always there waiting for you. He's never not there. He's letting you make your own mistakes. He's letting you stumble. But the more to me I want, I think the whole story of my life is that the closer I was to God, the more joyful, the more comforted, the more fun fun is because God really loves us.

00;41;18;28 - 00;41;25;01
Cheryl Ladd
And that's a gift that is the greatest gift of all.

00;41;25;01 - 00;41;48;02
Rusty George
So good. Well, I would be remiss if I didn't ask some of these questions, because I know our listeners want to know. Give us some of your favorite moments from Charlie's Angels. I mean, this is an iconic show in the history of American television. You'll forever be associated with that. I think it was, what, five, six years of your life.

00;41;48;02 - 00;41;56;26
Rusty George
And and here it continues to define you. What are some of your fond memories of those days and your costars?

00;41;56;26 - 00;42;31;03
Cheryl Ladd
Well, Jaclyn and I, everyone knows that we're still great friends. And to say on the phone to her yesterday, it was her birthday and we see each other when we can. It's not as often as we'd like, but we talk all the time and talk and talk and talk. It's just really nice to have gotten such a beautiful, wonderful friend from the show and I think the very first show that I, I did that that I was on was Circus with Circus of Terror.

00;42;31;03 - 00;42;57;00
Cheryl Ladd
It was called and I had to be the sword throwers assistant. And that because of that, that's one of the first things that comes into my mind, because it was the first show that I filmed and then the stand in that thing and and have that guy throw it. I said he's not really going to throw. So. Sergeant me newsie no.

00;42;57;00 - 00;43;23;12
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl but you when we say you stand in this position, don't move because they come flying out the back so fast that it when it looks like he's throwing them at me and the boom like a gunshot boom, they would come out like this. So I had a lot of things to learn. Being Chris Monroe anyway, it was it was just a fun show to do.

00;43;23;12 - 00;43;51;09
Cheryl Ladd
I liked the character and I like the fact that in the show the three women were for each other. I thought That was a really great example of women really working together, really caring about each other, really having close relationships. And I think being so capable. And I think it inspired I know it inspired millions of young women to to venture out.

00;43;51;18 - 00;44;24;02
Cheryl Ladd
I mean, when that show was on, it was just starting where women were getting different kind of careers kinds of careers. And, you know, when I was growing up, women were secretaries, teachers, nurses. I mean, there were that's that's where they could get a job. And I think it really show the show showed young women that they don't have those same barriers.

00;44;24;15 - 00;44;58;13
Cheryl Ladd
If you're interested in this, if you want to be a soldier, if you want to join the Army, join the army. You have these opportunities and I can't tell you how many I met. Police officers, not just officers, but they were the sergeants. They were the the head of the police department in all these places. And I can't tell you the letters I get from from women, young women and and telling me about their careers.

00;44;58;13 - 00;45;07;06
Cheryl Ladd
And it was because of watching Charlie's Angels that they felt that they could go after something like that. It's so rewarding.

00;45;07;06 - 00;45;22;18
Rusty George
Well, that's great. What a legacy to have. Well, Cheryl, I know there's much more legacy to be written as your book will be coming out and it will bless a lot of people when it releases. Love to have you back and have you read some of it to us. Tell us more about some of these stories in it.

00;45;23;02 - 00;45;29;22
Rusty George
I'm so grateful for our meeting and thankful for for you sharing your story with our audience today.

00;45;30;03 - 00;45;33;09
Cheryl Ladd
Such a pleasure. I can't wait to meet you in person.

00;45;33;27 - 00;45;51;25
Rusty George
Well, thank you so much. What an incredible conversation. What an incredible woman. And I'm so grateful for stories like this. And we see the way that God is weaving together our lives and putting us together with the right people at the right time. Thank you, Cheryl, for being a part of the podcast. You may have heard this and thought, Boy, I got a friend that would really love to hear this.

00;45;51;25 - 00;46;18;07
Rusty George
Or I had a friend that grew up on Charlie's Angels. You know, she would love this. He would love this. Hey, pass it along to them and make sure you encourage them to subscribe to the podcast so they get these podcasts every single week. Hey, for those of you that love TV and movies next week, we'll be back with one of our favorite guests, movie producer Dan Angel, as he talks about his favorite Christmas movies, the critically acclaimed Christmas movies and the Christmas movies you maybe didn't know about, but you should.

00;46;18;17 - 00;46;25;26
Rusty George
So it's all things Christmas here at the Leading Simple podcast. Make sure you join us next week. And as always, keep it simple.

00;46;26;06 - 00;46;52;10
Intro/Outro
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