I recently heard that Carol was a divorcee. I always thought Mike and Carol were both widowed. Please help me out here.:confused:

No, Carol was not divorced, at least not technically. If Sherwood Schwartz had his way she would have been, but ABC didn't like that aspect so Schwartz left it up in the air. But we do know 100% that Mike is a widower.

The advertising when the show first came on in Australia, definately stated that Carol was a widow. In the wedding scenes when she is talking to her parents what she says about thinking everything had almost ended a few years before sounds very like her husband died.

Yeah....but now when you watch all the specials on TV...they (the cast) all say that she was TV first divorcee. Ive always felt she was because Bobby still had the pic of his real mother...but girls said nothing about their real father.

No Carol Was Not Divorce But Carol Husband Passed Away
And Mike Wife Passed Away.

Take Care
Aaron The News Repoter

I heard that on the 1990 show The Bradys there was going to be an episode where it was going to be established that Carol is an divorcee and the girls would meet their real father but the series was cancelled before they ever got around to it.

The plot for the movie A Very Brady Sequel picks up on this theme.

Regarding Carol's comment in the first pilot episode, the line about everything ending could have been about a divorce.

In one of the Brady movies, her ex-husband comes back.

i liked that movie! but it was full of goofs.

Actually, Mike was Carol's fourth husband. Each girl was fathered by a husband who eventually died. Sort of like "Bonanza".

Originally posted by hawaii five-o
Actually, Mike was Carol's fourth husband. Each girl was fathered by a husband who eventually died. Sort of like "Bonanza".

Where in the series did it state that Carol had three different husbands before Mike? I always thought Carol had one husband before "the one day when the lady met this fellow" ("this fellow" referring to Mike, of course!) since her full name was Carol Ann Tyler Martin Brady: her maiden name was Tyler and her first husband was Martin.

If indeed she had three different husbands before Mike, she would have been referred to with seven names in the pilot, as in Carol Ann Tyler Martin (insert second husband here) (insert third husband here) Brady. (That is, assuming her first husband was Martin.)

Just my two cents!

Originally posted by James
Where in the series did it state that Carol had three different husbands before Mike? I always thought Carol had one husband before "the one day when the lady met this fellow" ("this fellow" referring to Mike, of course!) since her full name was Carol Ann Tyler Martin Brady: her maiden name was Tyler and her first husband was Martin.

If indeed she had three different husbands before Mike, she would have been referred to with seven names in the pilot, as in Carol Ann Tyler Martin (insert second husband here) (insert third husband here) Brady. (That is, assuming her first husband was Martin.)

Just my two cents!

I think Hawaii five-o is joking :lol:

I was joking. My tongue was firmly planted in my cheek.

I thought Hawaii was quite humorous.

So, if Carol was indeed divorced why didn't the girls ever go see their dad?

This is very "Un-Brady" of me to say, but maybe the guy was a big jerk. Maybe he cheated on Carol. Or maybe he beat Carol and the girls. If I had a dad like this, I wouldn't want to see him again or even mention his name.

Good point.
After the first episode, I thought it was weird the boys never talked about their mother. I do realize it was a picture perfect show, but, still.

Originally posted by hawaii five-o
Actually, Mike was Carol's fourth husband. Each girl was fathered by a husband who eventually died. Sort of like "Bonanza". :lol: :wave:

In one of the Brady movies, her ex-husband comes back.

Yeah, the Very Brady Sequel. I saw that movie. But that guy wasn't really her longlost husband. He was just pretending, so Carol's real first husband before she remarried to Mike might really be deceased.

Originally posted by faraj

Yeah, the Very Brady Sequel. I saw that movie. But that guy wasn't really her longlost husband. He was just pretending, so Carol's real first husband before she remarried to Mike might really be deceased.

When the impersonating husband showed up, did Carol say something like, "I thought you were dead?"

Well, if her past husband was alive or dead or divorced, without the past husbands permission or if he gave them up for adoption, Carol had no right to change the girls names to Brady.

That is law even back then as it is today.

That's not neccesarily so! When my uncle married his wife they had her young daughter's name changed to his.They had to go to court,file papers,run an ad in the newspaper for 7 days,and if(and when) the natural father didn't object,the name change was made!

The movie is very different from the series, the movie was very tongue in cheek, so you can't go by what happened in the movies :)


I had always assumed she was a widow, if she was a divorcee, why did the girls call Mike "dad", did their dad leave Carol for a younger woman or something?

Originally posted by Angela Micelli



I had always assumed she was a widow, if she was a divorcee, why did the girls call Mike "dad", did their dad leave Carol for a younger woman or something? Again,using my same uncle as the example,his wife's teenage kids call him "dad" even though their actual father is alive,in jail for committing a crime against one of the kids.Although I personally always thought it strange for both the boys and girls to call Mike and Carol mom and dad immediately after the wedding...to me it seems like that would be a more gradual process.(Sorry I'm in such an analytical mood today,guys..forgive me!:D )

Carol's marital status was left up in the air so that it could be resolved that she was divorced if the netowork later relented. They never did, but it was one possible plot line for the never made sixth season.