Donna Mills on why she never married despite decades-long romance: 'I was always so independent'
"Knots Landing" star Donna Mills is revealing the reason that she has never walked down the aisle despite her 25-year romance with actor Larry Gilman.
During a recent appearance on the "Still Here Hollywood Podcast with Steve Kmetko," the 85-year-old actress, who has been in a relationship with Gilman, 76, since 2001, opened up about why she has chosen to avoid marriage.
"I was always so independent," she told Kmetko. "I’m still very independent."
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"I just didn’t ever want to be subject to whatever you have to do when you get married," Mills continued. "I also didn’t want to say I was going to love somebody forever."
"I don’t know if I would do that or not," she admitted with a laugh.
Mills shared the topic of marriage had also come up between herself and her daughter Chloe, who recently tied the knot herself.
"It’s funny because my daughter asked me that. My daughter just got married," Mills said. "And she just had a baby."
After Kmetko told her that she didn't "look like a grandmother," Mills pointed to a necklace she was wearing that was inscribed with the word "Grandma," which she said was a gift from Chloe.
"She gave me this, and I wear it all the time," Mills said.
Mills explained that she and Chloe have had many conversations about what name her grandson would call her.
"And I said, "'Oh, I know. Glamma,'" Mills told Kmetko with a laugh. "But she didn't like that."
The Daytime Emmy Award winner Chloe adopted as a newborn in 1994 when she was 54. Seven years later, Mills began dating Gilman, whom she has described as an "incredibly kind, funny, wonderful man."
"I love him," she told The Daily Beast in 2022. "I’m lucky to have found him. I found him late, but I found him. Everybody loves him. He’s great."
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Prior to meeting Gilman, Mills and advertising executive Richard Holland, who was previously married to singer Chaka Khan, had an on-and-off relationship for around 20 years starting in 1979.
When asked why she has never married, Mills said, "I don’t remember anyone ever getting down on one knee."
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The "Nope" star also cited her independent streak and explained why she and Gilman never felt the need to marry after meeting later in life.
"I am so freaking independent. I just am. I’m very independent and by the time Larry and I met we were both pretty established," she said. "To combine everything at that point is really difficult. So we just combined our lives but not our finances and stuff like that. It’s much cleaner, much better."
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Mills shared that maintaining her independence had always given her a sense of security, even while sharing her life with a partner.
"I’ve always felt a woman being independent was important," she said. "It made me feel safer, I guess, to know that I can take care of myself. I want someone to be in my life to love and be with, to be a companion and to go places and all that, but if I have to I can take care of myself."
"And really, I had enough marriages as Abby!" she added, referring to the character she played on "Knots Landing."
Mills became a television sensation playing the glamorous and ruthless Abby Cunningham on "Knots Landing" from 1980 to 1989.
Abby tied the knot four times over the course of the hit primetime soap, though one union was annulled almost immediately after the wedding.
Mills and Gilman share a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, where they have a vineyard. In 2015, Mills told Closer Weekly that the vineyard was a gift from her longtime partner.
"Larry planted a vineyard for me last year," Donna shared. "He’s really such a good guy."
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The couple went on to launch Mandeville Vineyards, a small-scale wine brand produced from grapes grown on their vineyard in Brentwood's Mandeville Canyon.
Mills, who surprised her fans when she announced that she had launched an OnlyFans account in July, previously discussed how she had received some unusual requests from subscribers, including one involving her vineyard.
In August, Mills appeared on "Creators Inc. Podcast," which is hosted by Andy Bachman, the CEO of the talent agency Creators, Inc., which manages her OnlyFans account.
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During her appearance, Bachman noted that some "foot kink people" had asked to see the actress "stomping on grapes" with her bare feet in her vineyard.
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"I’m gonna do it," Mills said. "I tried to shoot it myself. But you can’t shoot something while you’re stomping, it just doesn’t work."
"I'm going to uh… I'm going to do that very soon… and do it right so that you know people can… really enjoy it," she continued. "I think it's really funny and fun and uh it's the kind of thing that I want to be able to share with the fans."