Melissa Gilbert's six-year relationship with Rob Lowe was "very tumultuous"

Speaking on the I Choose Me podcast, she said: "I guess looking back on those six years, I mean, I was such a baby when Rob and I were together. I was 17 and we broke up for the last time when we were 23 and it was very tumultuous.

"I felt like a bit of an old sage in the business at that point because I'd been doing it for so long. And I was still on Little House on the Prairie when we met, and it had already been years, and he was sort of starting out. He'd done a little bit of television. And so I was able to sort of sit back and watch this meteoric rise happen.

"I don't think I was prepared for the stuff that came with it, necessarily. I was prepared for all of having to go to premieres and things and award shows and all of that, but I wasn't prepared for the fandom and frankly, the girls.

"I always thought that every girl and woman was my sister. We're sisters, but it was not evident at all when Rob and I were a couple. I mean, it was like I didn't exist. They just pushed right past me and stick phone numbers in his pockets and stuff.

"To say it was disconcerting is doing it a big disservice. It was hard and horrible."

However, Melissa is now grateful for the romance as it helped her set boundaries in future relationships.

She said: "I think I learned a lot about what didn't work for me, actually, and what I wouldn't stand for later on.

"They're hard because they usually are born of heartbreak and angst, but those are really valuable and important lessons... We had some really, really, really fun times.

"But in looking back, I look at the way my life is so easeful now and I look at it back then, and I feel like my shoulders were always up by my ears, always waiting for the next shoe to drop or something bad to happen or some, I don't know, something untoward or gross."