Step back, Aladdin! Barbara Eden, the iconic star who made everyone dream of genies, is turning 92 on August 23, and she looks amazing!
Eden turned fans into eager wish-makers, hoping for their own magical blonde, and she’s still loved nearly 60 years after her debut in I Dream of Jeannie.
While she dazzled on screen, she faced real-life challenges, including the tragic loss of her son to a heroin overdose in 2001.
Born during the Great Depression, Barbara Eden, who will be 92 on August 23, 2023, transformed her tough beginnings into a successful career starting in 1956 with films like A Private’s Affair and shows like The Johnny Carson Show and I Love Lucy.
In 1960, she gained international fame when she starred alongside Elvis Presley in the western movie Flaming Star.
Then, in 1965, the beautiful blonde took on the role of Jeannie, a magical genie freed by astronaut and U.S. Air Force Captain Tony Nelson.
Eden won the hearts of viewers with her fantastic performance as the enchanting character throughout the five seasons of the beloved sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, with Larry Hagman as her love interest, Nelson.
In the same year that she was becoming super famous for her role as Jeannie, Eden and her husband, actor Michael Ansara, who was well-known for his part in the 60s show Broken Arrow, welcomed their son, Matthew Ansara, on August 29, 1965.
When Matthew turned nine, his parents decided to end their 15-year marriage. Eden, who went on to marry two more times, believes this breakup led her son down a bad path, getting involved with drugs.
The star of Harper Valley PTA shared that she first realized Matthew was having problems in 1984. At 19, he moved in with his dad after she got remarried. When she returned home after her second divorce, she noticed he was sleeping a lot and was lying about being in college.
Matthew never told Mike and me that he was using heroin because he didn’t want to hurt our feelings. However, we started to notice something was off. He was acting really tired, losing weight, and staying out late at night. I pushed him to go to a rehab center, and when he got out a month later, I let him come back home.
But then he started using drugs again. The experts warned us that when a child is on drugs, it’s like they become the drug itself; they’re not really your child anymore, and they don’t have a place in your home. So, when he turned 20, I had to make the tough decision to lock him out, which was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Matthew began using drugs when he was just 10 years old, and for the next 12 years, he went in and out of rehab while his parents tried to support him.
“When he came to visit, he would sometimes joke, ‘Better lock up everything!’ But when he was sober, he would say, ‘I’m so sorry. I love you more than anyone in the world,’” Eden shared about her son, who often took their things when he came over.
When he was 27, Matthew had a short period where things seemed better. He got married and went to UCLA to study creative writing, but then things took a turn for the worse, and his wife left him.
Eden, his mom, remembered the moment everything changed. She said she confronted Matthew, and he got really angry, throwing things around before storming out. After searching for months, Eden finally found him living on the streets.
Not long after his separation, he called her, sounding really weak, and said, “Mom, I’m sick.” Eden, along with Mike’s wife and a friend, drove to a rough area in Venice, California, where they discovered Matthew unconscious in his apartment from an overdose.
Eden described the place as “filthy.” Even though he weighed 200 pounds, the three women managed to get him into the car and rushed him to the hospital, which ended up saving his life.
At the age of 29, he was diagnosed with clinical depression and started taking medication, but it didn’t really help him.
By the time he turned 31, Matthew had gotten clean and was following in his parents’ footsteps. He landed a leading role in the 2001 movie To Protect and Serve and also appeared in Con Games, which was released after his passing that same year.
In September of that year, he was excited about marrying a “wonderful girl.”
Eden recalled a moment when Matthew said, “Life is great, Mom. I can’t believe I spent so many years not noticing how green the trees are.”
Tragically, on June 26 at 3 a.m., Eden was awakened by a phone call about her son.
Just six hours earlier, police discovered 35-year-old Matthew, who was an amateur bodybuilder, slumped over the steering wheel of his truck. They also found vials of anabolic steroids that he used to gain muscle for competitions.
The autopsy revealed that Matthew died from an accidental drug overdose.
“Then he was gone. He had injected a dose of extremely pure heroin, and it was too much for his heart,” Eden explained. “Even when he was trying to get fit, he did it like an addict—obsessively. He just couldn’t do anything in moderation.”
The author and singer is still searching for answers after the tragic loss of her only child. She has been married to Jon Eicholtz since 1991 and is heartbroken over her son’s death.
“Matthew struggled a lot. He really wanted his mom and dad to be together. If I could go back, I would have waited until he was older to make that decision. But then I think about how many kids from divorced families don’t end up with problems like addiction.” She added, “He fought hard in many ways, but he ultimately lost his own battle.”
Eden’s father, senior Ansara, passed away in 2013 at the age of 91 due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He is laid to rest next to his son at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
As for Eden, she has stepped away from her role as Jeannie in her iconic pink harem suit but still appears on shows like Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition and in the 2019 movie My Adventures with Santa, where she plays Mrs. Claus. Her most recent stage performance was in the 2019 production of Love Letters.
We want to start by wishing the amazing Barbara Eden a super happy birthday!
Also, we can’t even begin to understand how hard it must be for a parent to lose a child, and we feel really sorry for her. If you know someone who is having a tough time with addiction, please reach out to a local hotline for help—it might really make a difference.
Let’s spread the word about this story and send Barbara all the love and good vibes she truly deserves!