Gilmore Girls star Kelly Bishop takes a trip down memory lane to recount her incredible life in her memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl. Bishop revisits so many major milestones in her life, from her childhood in Colorado to her rise on Broadway to playing Emily on Gilmore Girls.
The actress is candid when looking back at her life. She opens up about her abortion and saying goodbye to her onscreen husband, Edward Herrmann, on his deathbed. With The Third Gilmore Girl out now, TV Insider is breaking down the five most notable revelations from Bishop’s book.
1. Her final goodbye to onscreen husband, Edward Herrmann
Bishop didn’t know her Gilmore Girls costar, who played patriarch Richard Gilmore, was sick until just a few weeks before he died. She learned Herrmann had brain cancer in a Page Six article. Herrmann’s wife, Star, called Bishop weeks later to ask if she’d come by the hospital to say goodbye.
“I walked over to stand beside his bed, took his surprisingly hot hand, and told him that Lauren [Graham], Amy [Sherman-Palladino], and Alexis [Bledel] sent their love,” Bishop wrote. Herrmann’s wife told Bishop she could kiss her former onscreen husband. She kissed Herrmann on the forehead and left a lip print. She whispered to him, “Tell them that’s from me.” The actor used to joke he had three wives: Star, his first wife, and Bishop. “I’ll always be honored to have been one of them,” she wrote. Herrmann died in 2014 at the age of 71.
2. Bishop had an abortion
When the actress found out she was pregnant in 1978, she decided to have an abortion. “It was a nonnegotiable statement of fact. I wasn’t going to have this child, or any other child, ever,” Bishop declared in her book. She felt “profound sadness” over “ending a potential life” and had an “enormous amount of anger” because she’d “let this happen in the first place.”
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She added, “Medically, it was simple. Emotionally, it took its toll, but I’ve never regretted it or doubted that I did the right thing.”
3. She had an affair
In the late 1960s, Bishop got involved in an extramarital affair with a man she didn’t name. The actress admitted that she “didn’t really care” at first that he was married to another woman. Bishop was in love with him, but she knew she had to end their relationship. “It broke my heart to hurt him,” she wrote.
4. Bishop is Team Logan
The actress addressed the debate over the father of Rory’s baby. “I personally think it was Logan [Matt Czuchry], by the way. I was always Team Logan. All the young actors on Gilmore Girls were terrific, on-and-off-screen, but while several of them seemed boyish, Logan took a more manly approach that I thought worked perfectly as a partner for Rory,” she stated.
5. The actress hasn’t “forgiven” herself regarding Bunheads
When Palladino offered her a key role in the ABC Family series Bunheads, Bishop’s husband had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Her work schedule for Bunheads became difficult as she juggled the role and taking care of her husband. Bishop said she always felt “preoccupied” when working on Bunheads. “To this day, I still haven’t completely forgiven myself for not being able to give 100 percent to her [Palladino] and to Bunheads,” she wrote. The show was canceled after one season.
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