In “Life Is Not a Stage,” ‘Brady Bunch’ star Florence Henderson, 77, writes about her hardscrabble upbringing, her failed first marriage, affairs, (including a one night stand with a prominent politician that resulted in a humiliating case of crabs) and bouts of depression. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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FOX411: A lot of people don’t know you were a big Broadway star before ‘The Brady Bunch.’
Florence Henderson: No they don’t. For me ‘The Brady Bunch’ is just a part of the fabric of my career, but for a lot of people, that’s it.

FOX411: Does that bug you?
Henderson: Not really because I’ve sung all my life. I kept performing through ‘The Brady Bunch’ and still do. It doesn’t bother me. If I hadn’t been allowed to do that it may have.
FOX411: Your second husband was a hypnotherapist and you became one too.
The reason I got into it was because I had developed stage fright and fear of flying which are two things you don’t want to have in my business and I tried everything to get rid of it. I went to psychiatrists, I read books, I tried everything and a friend of mine suggested hypnosis. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ anyway I went and I was helped so quickly. It took a few months and I got over it and I thought this is amazing. So I went to school and I studied hypnosis and became a certified hypnotherapist. It’s just a very, very valuable tool to have in your life. It’s not like you don’t know what’s going on. As a matter of fact when you’re hypnotized you’re in a very heightened state. Your body is very much at rest, you’re very, very still but your mind is very open and very aware and open to accept very positive suggestions and ideas to change your life for the better.
FOX411: You had a hardscrabble childhood yet you always remained so positive.
Henderson: I’ve often thought about that. I do think children come in wired a certain way. Why else would I be filled with hope and optimism, you just could not keep me down for very long. You can call it grace or a gift from God but I do think I came in with it. I had an instinct to gravitate towards people who were smarter than I was, teachers that were nice people that were trying to do things in life that were constructive and that’s what I gravitated to instead of what I saw and what I was in. I didn’t want to be in poverty, I didn’t want to be with people who were doing unpleasant things, I wanted to be better than that. I was lucky that I had that instinct inside of me.
FOX411: Why did you include the story about New York City Mayor John Lindsay giving you crabs?
Henderson: I love to read memoirs but I know when they’re not being really honest and I thought if I’m going to write this I’m going to write about myself as a human being who has had to overcome an awful lot in my life and had to face a lot of challenges, make a lot of mistakes, make some bad choices but I’ve managed to keep growing and evolving to live a very full life filled with friends, four children that I adore, five grandchildren and a career that I dearly love. So I just want people to know that they can make mistakes, have a hard childhood but you don’t have to be a victim of all of it.
FOX411: And have STDs and get over it.
Henderson: Yeah! Hey as I said in my book it takes courage to be happy. You don’t get happy by sitting around going on, ‘Oh this is a horrible situation, what to do?’ You’ve got to find the courage to change that. I think change is extremely hard for people.

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