Eve Plumb Vs. Maureen McCormick: The Brady Bunch Feud Took Decades To Mend

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Marcia and Jan Brady embodied the classic golden child vs. forgotten middle child dynamic, creating plenty of onscreen friction that helped move "The Brady Bunch" plot along. But the tension wasn't limited to the screen. In real life, Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb were embroiled in a decades-long feud that hails all the way back to their time on set. It's unclear what, if anything, caused it, but their animosity was ubiquitous. "From day one with these two I have always been in the middle," Susan Olsen, who played the youngest Brady girl, told News.com.au in 2015.

Some have suggested that McCormick and Plumb were simply incompatible. "They've never liked each other," a source told Radar in 2010. But their relationship underwent a massive fallout in the aughts for reasons that are very much traceable. In 2007, news leaked that McCormick intended to reveal that she had an intimate romance with her onscreen sister in her 2008 autobiography, "Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice." Plumb was reportedly furious, and things became even more fraught between the two. While the memoir includes mentions of a kiss, McCormick argued that the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

Plumb, for her part, reportedly accused McCormick of purposefully overselling the anecdote to generate interest in her book. The damage had been done, regardless of what version of "The Brady Bunch" secret was actually printed. Even though Olsen was friends with both, she verified the story and showed sympathy for Plumb. "I do understand Eve's point of view," she told Fox News in 2009. "She got tired of Maureen gaining attention for herself by regurgitating the tiresome and false insinuations that they had a lesbian affair." Thankfully, they were able to move past it.

Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb (seen above in 2019) eventually mended their rift. But it got worse before it got better. In the aftermath of the book ordeal, McCormick and Plumb's relationship reached an all-time low. So low, in fact, that it got in the way of a "Brady Bunch" TV reunion in 2010. Amid their feud, the "Today Show" had to cancel the joint interview planned for the cast members. "Everyone tells a slightly different story of what happened," the Radar source explained. "But the bottom line is that they didn't want to be on the same show."

The previous year, McCormick lamented the fallout and denied that their issues traced back to their time on the show. "It's such a drag because I loved her," McCormick told Tarts in 2009 (via Fox News). "I hope we can work it out, she was my best friend on the show. It's been years since we spoke." The timeline is unclear, but the two were back on speaking terms by the time the HGTV miniseries, "A Very Brady Renovation," was released in 2019.

And though her former castmates have spoken about the rift, Plumb denied there ever was one. "There was no — People like to say things. There was no remedy needed," she told E! News. By then, Plumb had nothing but positive things to say about seeing "The Brady Bunch" stars, who have all aged like fine wine, btw. Plumb has always preferred to stay quiet about the whole situation, but it sounds like she wanted to put this sad chapter in "The Brady Bunch" story behind her for good.