Susan Olsen Makes Surprising Admission About Her ‘Brady Bunch’ Character

Susan Olsen never embraced her “Brady Bunch” character, Cindy Brady. In a new interview, the actress revealed that she actually disliked the character even as a child, but managed to put on a happy face on-camera because she knew it was part of the job.

The former child star appeared on the ABC sitcom from 1969 to 1974, playing youngest sibling Cindy Brady—aka “the youngest one in curls”— for five seasons.  She later reprised the role for “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour,” as well as in a TV movie and a short-lived dramatic reboot of the series.

In an August 2025 interview with People magazine, Olsen, 64, admitted that as a child she “didn’t like Cindy.” But there was one reason in particular that she took issue with the onscreen character that made her famous.

“I used to say I wouldn’t even have her for a friend, because she was a tattletale,” Olsen revealed.

Cindy Brady’s tattling was the subject of several episodes of “The Brady Bunch.” In the 1970 episode, “The Tattle-Tale,” the rest of the “bunch” got mad at Cindy for snitching, and her gossip actually caused a near breakup for the family’s beloved maid, Alice (Ann B. Davis), and her butcher boyfriend, Sam (Allan Melvin).

Susan Olsen Was Teased Over Her ‘Brady Bunch’ Character, But She Didn’t Always Take It Personally

In the interview, Olsen revealed that as a kid, she would get teased for things her character did. “I probably understood it by the time I was a teenager, but when I was nine, the problem is I would do these things on the show, and in the back of my head was like, ‘Okay, how much am I going to get teased for this when I go back to school?’” she admitted. “Cindy would say something stupid, and then I’d go to school.”

Still, she noted that most of her bullies teased Cindy and not her, and were also jealous of her fame. “I was grateful that I wasn’t being teased for something bad,” she said. “It was something they were jealous of, and there were incidents that showed me why they were jealous, and I totally understood it. I thought, well, you know, I don’t blame them. I’d be jealous of me, too, because look at the fun I have. I led two lives, and I never let the paths cross.”

During an April 2025 appearance on “The Real Brady Bros” podcast, Olsen also said she always considered Cindy to be “stupid,” but just powered through. “I was 7, but that’s just how my career was,”  she said. “It was something I had to accept.”

She also revealed that she was glad the ABC sitcom aired on Friday nights during its original run “because at least the kids [at school] have a whole weekend to maybe forget about all the stupid things Cindy did while she was in my body on TV.”

Susan Olsen Admitted She Considered Quitting ‘The Brady Bunch’

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Olsen previously revealed that she considered quitting “The Brady Bunch,” but it wasn’t due to her tattle-tale character.

In a 2023 interview with Fox News, Olsen revealed she had a scary experience with fans while attending a high school play with her family in the early 1970s.

 “I got recognized in the audience and I got mobbed,” the “Brady Bunch” star recalled. “They had to call the police to get me out. It was this huge crowd of people. I’d seen a grown-up who [said], ‘Oh look, her little face is red. She can’t breathe – here, sign one more [autograph].’ It was very, very frightening. I didn’t like it. I was ready to quit the show.”

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