Sam Amico
Actress Loni Anderson is probably still best known for her marriage to the late Burt Reynolds, but she was no slouch herself. She did, after all, have a certain degree of toughness.
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Anderson, 76, actually took self-defense classes to ward off those who like to creep on celebrities, she told the New York Post.
“I was ready,” she said. “I went to self-defense classes, I prepared my speech, I was just ready.”
Anderson decided to learn to protect herself after hearing of incidents involving other actresses.
“You’d go for an interview, there would be 20 girls in the outer office, and you’d get talking,” she said. “And they all had horror stories, so I wanted to prepare myself.”
Loni Anderson On Career, Breaking Stereotypes & Love
Fortunately, she added that she never once had to put her defense skills to use. But he did stand her ground way back in 1980 when she wanted a new contract as one of the stars on adored sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.
Eventually, Anderson got the pay bump she sought.
As for the marriage to Reynolds from 1988-1994, Anderson admitted it could be rocky. She noted Reynolds called her “an underemployed actress with low self-esteem” after they split.
But she’s choosing to look back on it in a positive light.
“It’s been 30 years and so now I’m back to remembering all the wonderful times in those 12 years with Burt,” she told us. “You just have to get past it for your own mental health, well-being, for the health of my son.”
“… I choose to focus on the positives and say, ‘Thank you, Burt.’ I had a really lovely life and met wonderful people and had a kind of princess existence and that’s what I choose to dwell on.”
