Florence Henderson has a dark theory on what happened to Carol Brady’s first husband

When The Brady Bunch premiered on TV in 1969, it was fairly groundbreaking in that it showed a modern, blended family with some complicated dynamics… Except, it really wasn’t the complicated when you remember neither Carol Brady’s first husband nor the original Mrs. Brady were ever really mentioned.

After years of speculation on what became of Mr. and Mrs. Brady’s first partners, Florence Henderson shared her dark, yet amusing theory.

“I killed my husband. I was the original black widow,” she joked during a stop by HuffPost Live this week. “No, nobody ever said [what happened to Carol’s husband]. I always said I just got rid of him.”

As for what fate befell Mike Brady’s first wife, there was a scene in the pilot episode where Mike asked youngest son Bobby what he did with a picture of his mom that was on the bedside table. Bobby said he put it away so he wouldn’t upset his “new mom,” but Mike assured him it was fine to keep it out and that his mother would be “very proud.” Many took this to mean the boys’ mother died.

In later interviews, show creator Sherwood Schwartz said he imagined Carol was divorced — but said network executives would’t allow that. Instead, he said he made references to her past intentionally vague, even though she was described as a widow in TV Guide‘s 1969 Fall Preview.

Besides the pushback on the subject of her first husband, Florence said show producers were also opposed to giving her a job outside of the home.

“I begged for a job, because I’ve been a working mother. I have four children,” she said this month. “[They said] ‘No, you can’t.’ … So when we started having all of the reunions, I said, ‘I will not come back unless you give me a job. So you know what they made me, screw them? A real estate agent!”

That Mrs. Brady… Maybe not so “lovely” after all! 😉