- On April 9, Sara Gilbert announced that she's leaving The Talk after 9 years to "have balance" in her life.
- The Roseanne star has three children: Levi Hawk, Sawyer Jane, and Rhodes Emilio.
- Following her split from Allison Adler, she married songwriter and music producer Linda Perry in 2014.
On Tuesday's episode of The Talk, the show's creator Sara Gilbert announced that she's stepping away from the popular daytime show for more "balance" and to pursue other work. The top project on her list? Spending more time with wife Linda Perry and their three children. While the show creator, producer, and star of Roseanne has managed to keep her personal life private throughout the years, here's everything we know about her family.
November 2011: Sara Gilbert reveals she's dating Linda Perry on The Talk.
2011 proved to be a year of major highs and serious lows for Sara. After being picked up by CBS the previous year, The Talk was now averaging 1.83 million viewers per episode, beating out other competitors. During that same year, however, Sara and her longtime girlfriend Allison Adler split after 10 years together. Despite their breakup, the couple who were parents to two children — Levi Hank, born to Adler in October 2004, and Sawyer Jane, born to Sara in August 2007 — still had "a lot of love for each other."
Just a few month later, Sara gushed to her The Talk cohosts about the new lady in her life: singer, songwriter, producer, and former 4 Non Blondes front woman Linda Perry. While she remained mum about how the couple met, she revealed that they were seen by paparazzi, prompting her to announce the news. Throughout the next few years, Linda made several guest appearances on the popular CBS show to promote her charity work and new music.
April 2013: The couple gets engaged.
Now that same-sex marriage was finally legal in California, the couple decided it was time to make things official. Linda made the first move: "She goes to her backpack and she pulls out these T-shirts and the first T-Shirt says 'will' and then puts on another T-shirt and it says, 'you,' then 'marry,' 'me,' Sara recalled on The Talk. "It was the most amazing proposal ever." To top it off, the people picnicking beside them, who were actually hired by Linda, played "Love Song" on string instruments.
When reflecting on their relationship, Linda told Entertainment Tonight that "there's no doubt about Sara and I are supposed to be together." While she was excited about the prospects of marriage, the singer felt confident that the engagement wouldn't affect their relationship. "It actually doesn't feel any different because Sara and I have such a grounded relationship," Linda told Artisan News.
March 2014: The couple gets married in Malibu.
After nearly four years of dating, the couple wed in an intimate ceremony in Malibu, California. The night was all about friends, family, and of course, music. "We decided that we wanted to be together and enjoy people’s company, because I think people miss that part of their wedding. We wanted to bring everybody with us down the hill and have this communal feeling," Sara said on The Talk. Just like their proposal, Linda had another musical trick up her sleeve. After serenading Sara with John Lennon's "Love," Linda surprised her wife with a performance by Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow, Martha Davis from The Motels, Dale Bozzio from Missing Persons, and Terri Nunn from Berlin.
Party aside, the wedding itself was a milestone for the happy couple. "It feels more different than you expect. You feel like you’re part of this institution and it’s official, and, oh, I better not mess this up. You feel safer in a way and you feel like you’ve really committed and it’s not about, can I deal with this or not deal with it. It becomes, how will we deal with our relationship together," Sara said on The Talk after her wedding.
February 2015: Sara gives birth.
First comes love, then comes marriage ... then comes a baby. Although the couple was already parents to Sara's two kids from her previous relationship, they agreed that it was important for them to have a baby of their own. "I knew when we got married that Linda needed a baby. That even though we were a family — the four of us — she needed to follow a little soul from day one," Sara said while being honored at Family Equality Council's 2016 LA Impact Awards.
During a taping of The Talk, Sara announced that the couple were expecting their first child together. She gave birth to Rhodes Emilio on February 28, 2015.
Nearly a year later, Linda talked about the impact motherhood has had on her life and marriage: "Sara and I, she's changed my life. We were talking about having a baby and we described this little human. He's in my life. That guy that we were talking about, that little human is sitting upstairs in the hotel room and I can't believe it. He's changed my life," Linda said at Family Equality Council's 2016 LA Impact Awards.
April 2019: Sara announces she's leaving The Talk to spend more time with her family.
With the comeback of Roseanne (now The Conners) and the success of The Talk, Sara admitted to viewers that she has too much on her plate, especially with her three growing children. Now that her children are 14, 11, and 4 years old, the mom is busier than ever, which is part of the reason why she's pulling back from the CBS show. "I loved it and felt totally empowered, but also, if I’m being honest about it, my life was slightly out of balance. I wasn’t able to spend as much time with my three kids as I’d like, or time for myself," Sara reflected on her decision to exit.
Along with new acting and production opportunities, the 44-year-old is looking forward to spending more time with her wife and children. And now she might even have time to finish Rhodes Emilio's baby book ... at least that's her goal.
