Erin Moran Said Her First Husband Struggled with Her Fame, Wanted Her to be 'Unrecognizable'
Erin Moran’s appearance on Celebrity Fit Club had her speaking about more than her struggle to stay healthy - on the show, the Happy Days actress opened up about her short-lived first marriage to Rocky Ferguson.
Moran - who died on Saturday at the age of 56 - told PEOPLE in a 2007 interview promoting the show that her first husband wanted her to “not be recognizable” to fans.
“He wanted me to lie in who I was and if anyone recognized me to say no I wasn’t,” she said. “And that’s the pressure he put on me.”
When asked if this was because Ferguson wanted to be the center of attention, Moran said she thought that to be true but didn’t want to speak further on it.
“I really don’t want to delve into his personality or why he did things,” she said. “I don’t even want to go there because it’s pointless.”
The pair divorced in 1993.
Moran later married Steve Fleischmann, a Walmart employee, in 1993. The couple moved into Fleischmann’s mother’s trailer in Indiana so Moran could act as her caregiver, her publicist confirmed to ABC News in June 2012.
Officers in Harrison County in Indiana responded to reports of an unresponsive female in Corydon, Indiana, on Saturday afternoon. First responders determined that the woman, identified as Moran, had deceased, PEOPLE has confirmed (the news was first reported by TMZ). An autopsy is pending.
Moran most famously played Joanie Cunningham, the younger sister to Richie Cunningham (played by Ron Howard) on Happy Days, which ran from 1974 to 1984. She also starred in the spin-off, Joanie Loves Chachi from 1982 to 1983, which followed her character’s romance with Chachi, played by Scott Baio.
Moran also appeared on The Love Boat, Murder She Wrote and The Bold and the Beautiful.
