Gretchen Bonaduce - Surviving Agent Orange

Gretchen Bonaduce - Surviving Agent Orange
Hello world! Gretchen Bonaduce came onto the scene in the mid-00s, starring in Breaking Bonaduce, a VH1 reality show with her former Partridge Family star husband Danny Bonaduce.

Soon after the show ended they divorced and Surviving Agent Orange focuses on the rest of the story: her eighteen year marriage to Danny and all that entailed―addiction, infidelity, and the chaos of celebrity, as well as their divorce and her life as a single mother. Musician, reality star, and mother of two, Gretchen's story takes a fun and funny look at a life in and around the spotlight.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:45):
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Speaker 2 (00:47):
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Speaker 3 (02:34):
I've been trying to get this guests for a while now.
Gretchen Bonaducci. You might remember her from the the reality
TV series Breaking Bona Ducci, and she just came out
with this book, Gretchen Bonaducci Surviving Agent Orange, Okay, which
I think is a great It's great and then what
is this? And other things I learned from being thrown

(02:56):
under the Partridge Family bus. I'm a huge Partridge Family fan.
I still am, of course, aren't we all?

Speaker 1 (03:03):
And I think it was a great show.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, and I think me and Danny are the same
age too. Fifty five, right, I.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Think he's going to be fifty nine eight. Yeah, he
was born in fifty.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Nine, but he's my sister's age. Okay, But Gretchen Bona Ducie,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Thank you so much, Ed.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
I am just completely honored to be on your show
and just flattered and excited.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, tell us about yourself. Let's say I met you
at the soccer game. Who is Gretchen Bona Ducci.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Oh my gosh, that's such a complicated question. Well, you
know what.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
I was born outside of Chicago, grew up in a
very religious Southern Baptist family, moved all over the country.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
I also lived in Germany when I was a child.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
I love to sing, I have an eighties band, and
I love being a mom.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
So that's kind of me in a nutshell. I suppose.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
In your eighties band, we can hear that at the Grove.
What is it the August sixteenth?

Speaker 5 (04:03):
August sixteenth, Yep, we'll were playing at the Grove. We
just did a show in Laughlin, Nevada, and I think
we're going to be doing another date in October, but
I don't know what the date is yet.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, very cool.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
I saw you on another show one time. I think
it was one of those flipping houses shows, one of
those real estate type shows or something.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yes, yes, I think that was million dollar listing, that's
what it was.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Did you ever get that house movement?

Speaker 1 (04:26):
That would have been nice.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
I have put my house on and off the market
several times, but since.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I wasn't really in desperation.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
To sell it unless I could get what I was asking,
I just said I'm not going to sell it then.
So actually I rented out right now for movies and
TV shows. Okay, you know that show Hollywood Hillbillies that
was on reels.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
No, I didn't catch that one though.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Oh okay, Well they shot two seasons in my house.

Speaker 6 (04:52):
So it's a.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Beautiful old house. I love it so much.

Speaker 5 (04:55):
But it's a big house, so it's kind of too
big for two people.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
So I've got it back on the market now.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
And who are the two people, know, Just you and
your oldest son.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
Yes, my daughter is actually engaged and she's getting married
in October, so she lives with her boyfriend, so it's
just me and my boy Okay.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Now, in the book, you mentioned how you did watch
The Partridge Family.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
When you were a kid.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
I saw it once.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
And that one time, did you think that Danny was
a cute kid? Did you have a crush on him?

Speaker 5 (05:29):
You know, I distinctly remember my mother would make us
go to bed, and she slept on a full up
couch in our living room.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
My brother and I shared a bedroom.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
And so we would wait for her to fall asleep,
and then we would sneak out and get underneath the bed,
under the couch bed, and we would watch TV til
she got us.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
And that's the one time I remember watching.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
It, and I distinctly remember trying to pronounce his name,
you know, because I was only like five years old,
six years old maybe, But I don't even remember or
anything about the episode.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
And what did you ever watch the repeats?

Speaker 1 (06:05):
I'm sure that I.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
Did, because you know, when you had the three channels
it was channels ABC, NBC, CBS, and VHS or something
like that. It seems like somebody ran it and rerun,
so I definitely saw it later. And of course, you know,
when I was married to Danny, every once once in
a while I catch one and watch it. And yeah,

(06:27):
he was an adorable kid, just so funny and charming,
and that's kind of how he was as an adult
as well.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Very mischievous, right, that's one way of putting it, okay,
and also too, the book, by the way too has
these little stories too about her crawling under the bed
there to fold out the couch, you know, and her
and a brother having to share a room, and a
lot of little stories like that. It's really fast read,
so I got through the whole book practically on Today's
right before the show. A very enjoyable book. I recommend

(06:55):
it to everybody. Gretchen Bonaducci Surviving Agent Orange because you
know it's a hard subject, man, Listen, you know it is.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yeah, because how about this you talk about all the
guy was a volatile guy.

Speaker 5 (07:10):
Yeah, well, I think everyone who's ever seen him on
anything like with Johnny Fairplay or on Breaking Vanaducci, that's
just a given. He really has an Italian temper and
he just does.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
But it ever gets so bad that he crossed the
line and got violent.

Speaker 5 (07:29):
No, never, I would never categorize my marriage as being
physically abusive. Definitely emotionally, he was abusive, you know, verbally,
but no, I would not say he was physically abusive.
But he was just difficult to deal with, and especially
when he was using, and you know, that became the

(07:51):
hard thing because he would have these long stretches of
being sober and not using, and he'd be great, and
then he fall off the way in and he'd be
all crazy again, you know.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
And so it was just a very hard thing. And
I mean we tried so many things.

Speaker 5 (08:08):
We tried rehab, we tried church, we tried therapy, everything
we could do, you know, to try to help him
and to maintain our marriage. But eventually I had to
face the fact that I was just going to be in.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
This exact same spot. If I didn't get out six
months later, it was going to be the same, you know.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
And I just needed to get my kids out of
that situation, which was really what made me.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Go, Yeah, I didn't get to that part of the
book when you actually made the decision to leave and
how it affected the kids and all that stuff. Yeah,
but let me ask you this though, because even you know,
even if he never stepped across the line, there just
just having this guy who's all roided out, roid raging,
you know, the violent tone in his voice and waving
his arms around. And he's a tough looking guy and

(08:52):
karate expert, martial artist guy. You know, even for a
grown man like me, you know, that's a stressful situation
to be living around.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
That really was.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
But I think that's one of the points in my
book that I wanted to make, is that in a way,
sometimes religion kind of victimizes you because you are so conditioned.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
To forgive, forgive, forgive, stay in your marriage.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
You know that I was trying so hard to make
things work out because.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
That was the way I've been raised, you know.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
So I think a lot of times people who come
from a really religious upbringing sometimes can you know, be
victimized by religion. Like I don't feel like Danny victimized
me because I chose to be there, you know.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
I mean, I would definitely rather be a.

Speaker 5 (09:39):
Person in this day and age that gives people more
chances than not enough chances.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
You know, it's important to.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
Work and do everything you kind of save your marriage,
and then eventually, you know, sometimes you have.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
To realize that it's a battle you can't win.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
What is your faith?

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Like new I'm very.

Speaker 5 (09:59):
Much still religious, but I'm not really into organized religion
at all anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
I just think it's just turned so negative.

Speaker 5 (10:06):
You know, so many of my friends are from the
lgb Q community, and I just can't support a group
of people that won't give them the same rights, you
know as everybody else. So there's just a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
I feel like my relationship with God is great and
I talk to him all the time, but I don't
really go to church anymore.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, because in the book you frequently you talk about, well,
this was God's plan and God got us here, and
I was praying to God here. So it seems like
it's still a big part of your life. You mentioned
it so many times in the book.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, it really is. It certainly is, and I just
feel like it's true. God has the plan.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
You know, there's no reason that Danny and I should
have got married under the circumstances how we did, and
we made it eighteen years what you know what I mean, Like,
why would it be me? Other people he dated, a
lot of the girls were drug addicts, that I would
be the person he would marry. I was not into drugs,
you know, that I could be a person that could
help him. And you know, I give him a lot

(11:04):
of credit that he let me. You know, he didn't
know me. He handed off all the money to me,
and you know, then I started investing because when we
got married, we had nothing, nothing at all. I mean,
he was living paytrick to paycheck, and then he got
arrested really quickly, like four months into when we got married,
and then we were fifty thousand dollars in debt, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
So and even then I had Danny's total blessing.

Speaker 5 (11:31):
He was like, I would totally understand if you go
right now, like that makes total sense to me that
you should just pack yourself and go.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
And I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 5 (11:39):
You know, I said, through good times and bad times,
and I guess this is a really really bad time
that I'm going to have to try to get through.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Because your guy's got married after basically after the first date,
like eight hours after that you met.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well that's the that's the loure.

Speaker 5 (11:55):
But it was actually probably more like seventy two hours,
which really isn't that much boat.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
It was a little longer than eight hours.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
And you know, I felt like I've always wanted to
get married.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
I didn't have a better plan, you know, like, uh,
that sounds as good as a plan as any.

Speaker 5 (12:13):
And I also didn't want to be in relationships like
sexual relationships.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
With men that I wasn't married to anymore.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
You know, I felt like that was just not something
I wanted to do anymore. So it all like all
happened in the same timeframe that all these things.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
You know, I was in Phoenix, I.

Speaker 5 (12:29):
Decided ideal and really want to be in relationships with
men that I wasn't married to.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
He offered to marry me.

Speaker 5 (12:35):
I had nothing better to do, so it seemed like
a really good idea.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
I listen, I can't.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
I've almost done that a couple of times myself. Okay,
I came very very close to doing it. And I've
known people too that got married. If the first date,
you know, and then they're together eight ten years later,
well I feel like.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
Any reason to get married is as good as the next,
because fifty percent of them don't work out anyway.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
You know.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
I've known people that have dated for five year, year,
six years, ten years, they got married, and six months
a year later they're divorced.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
So you know what I mean, you just don't know.
And I think we both luked.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
Out because Danny needed direction and someone hardcore to try
to help him clean up his image in his life,
and I had the backbone to do it. You know,
I think a lot of people would not have wanted
to sit through a lot of that.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
Would you do that again?

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Absolutely? And every second.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
I mean I have two of the most incredible children
I had. Other than when he was nutty and things
were bad, there was a lot of great.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Times, you know, a lot of great times. No one
could sit in a marriage for We were together sixteen
years and then it was two years until we were divorced,
so we were.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
Literally together eighteen years, which was kind of weird.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
Our divorce was granted on the exact day that we
got married.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
I thought, yeah, And you know, we I filed I
don't know in June two years before that, but it
was granted on that day. So to the day, we
were married eighteen years. And I mean I definitely put
up with more than most people would. But I think
if you understand my upbringing, that sort of explains it
a little more.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
You know that.

Speaker 5 (14:13):
You're just taught that you stay in your marriage through
good and bad, and you try to fix it. And
we did all those things, you know, Like I said,
we went to therapy, and we did the church and
just anything we could do to try to keep it together.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
We tried.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Now, most people who haven't read the book and would think, well,
my god, she must have had some kind of an upbringing,
you know, has daddy issues and violent behavioring with her
parents or some you know, alcoholic parents, in order to
be attracted to this kind of men.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
But not at all.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
It's funny because my parents didn't really drink. My parents
were very strict. I mean I grew up in the
era where if you.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
You know, did something bad, you got spanked, you know.
So my parents were strict people. But I think a
lot of people in our age racket grew up that way.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
But your parents definitely weren't alcoholics or abuse or anything
like that.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
No, they never did any drugs. They never really drank.

Speaker 5 (15:12):
I don't even think I ever saw them drink. I
rarely ever heard a cuss word out of their mouth. Yeah,
I mean, they're just really, really wonderful people. But yeah,
I definitely grew up in a household where you it
was strict, you know. I think I was grounded almost
my entire ninth grade year because my grades were so

(15:33):
bad and that was like phone friends everything.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
That's interesting too, because you mentioned how you were you're
always the teacher's pet, right.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
I really was. I don't know how I was the
worst student.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Okay, But do you think though maybe now I'm turning
into a psychiatrist. Do you a little arms picture psychiatry?
But they're looking seeking the approval of your teachers and
kind of seeking the approval from this not Danny Bannaducci.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Uh what do you mean I didn't understand the christ.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, like like it's for you to be so like
for the teachers to spot you and say, hey, here's
this good kid. She's seeking approval for me. Let me
give her a little extra attention and building that bond
with your teacher. It's the same kind of thing where
like you were so so willing to put up with
anything from Danny just to get his approval.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
I don't know that that's really the case. I mean,
I don't see it that way, okay.

Speaker 5 (16:24):
I mean, I'm sure that there's a lot of psychiatrists
and their doctors who would say you're an enabler, you
are whatever, and you know, to me, I don't accept
that term enabler. I don't let anybody do anything, you know.
I just don't even understand why that's term.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
You know, I think people do what they're going to.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
Do, and so, yeah, would I agree with the psychiatrists, yeah,
so like, but I personally just don't accept that term.
You know, I was doing everything to make him not
do those things right.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
And you describe yourself a couple of times in a
book as the tough girl always.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Oh my god. Growing up, that was my grandparents' name
for me was tough Hubs. That was my nickname that
my parents.

Speaker 5 (17:08):
Called me my grandparents because I was just this tough
little girl. Even Danny when we first got married, he
was like, got it. You never cry, Like I've just
never seen you cry. And then all I did I'm
breaking by to Ducci, was cry.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
So if I just felt.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
The freedom, you know, I mean, that's definitely one thing
I would say about the show.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
It was the most honest show out there.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
If we were going to do this show, I wanted
to do it honestly, Like we were not going to
recreate conversations at all.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Like I wasn't going to go.

Speaker 5 (17:42):
Hey, Danny, remember when we were at therapy and you
said that, and I said this, let's just say that again,
Like there was none of that. I really wanted it
to be real because I was coming from a place
where I wanted to help people, you know, and I
know all the producers I'm sure were laughing at me,
you know, oh, yes, you want to help people with
your little reality show. But I really did, and I

(18:03):
know it did. I mean, I received so much mail
from so many people who were going through the same situation,
you know, with dealing with somebody with drugs and alcohol
and anger and all these things. And I received a
lot of mail from women who are like, you know what,
you were in the best situation.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
You were left this guy when.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
He was at the top of his game, and that
gave me the courage to go too. I mean, how
great is that that I could help people?

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Did you actually break up during the show?

Speaker 5 (18:35):
No, we declined to do a third season because we
were sure it would break up our marriage and we
decided we.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Didn't want to do that.

Speaker 5 (18:44):
So then we offered another alternative, a different show that
Danny and I had come up with, But yeah, we
decided not to do it.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
I wish we would have now, since we ended up
getting divorced. Anyway, you know, I could have.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
Used the paycheck, so but yeah, we both felt like
you know what, every time we do this show, things
become so volatile.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Maybe it's better we don't do a third season. And
that's what we decided.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
During the show, Danny was using a lot of testosterone
and steroids and stuff like that. Was was he always
doing that or was that something later in his life
that was later in his life.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
I mean, if he was doing that before me, I
don't know, But he didn't really start doing that until
much much later. I mean, we moved to Los Angeles,
he got into really working out by crazy in his appearance,
you know, he was on the other half, so he
was trying to just you know, present himself in the
best possible light.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
And then he started using steroids.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
Which recipe for disaster yea.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
Oh yeah, when you have a bad temper already, it's
not a good thing to put in your system.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
But I think he.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
Felt under pressure because we live in Hollywood and everything
is about appearances, you know what I mean, even males
feel that way.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
And Mario Lopez was on the show, and.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
He was such a good looking guy, and Danny was
always challenged by everybody, Like you know, whenever someone would
say something funny and I'd go, oh, I heard this
funny thing.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
He'd be like, well I said that two years ago,
Like he couldn't give anyone any credit. So he was
just kind of that way.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
You know, He's just a guy who has a lot
of pride and felt in competition with everyone.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Have you ever dealt with any other relationships but a
guy so jealous?

Speaker 5 (20:34):
Not somebody with jealousy, but definitely. I mean I even
say it in the book.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
I don't know why, but I love drunk guys like
soft being that way.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
Okay, great, well we hit it off, Grant, I'll see
you in eight hours.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
We'll get married.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Okay, let me, let's take a commercial break. But I'm
really enjoying this is great, sof Gretchen bonaduci Surviving Agent Orange.
A beautiful picture of a like a cartoonish kind of
picture of Gretchen on the on the cover here, and
other things I learned being thrown under the Partish family bus.
You can catch Gretchen in August fourteenth. She's going to
be the pop Obscure record what's that yeah?

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Popupscare Records in downtown Los Angeles.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Then on the fifteen at the Grove, and then her
eighties band at the sixteenth on the grove. So catch
Gretchenbonaducian person. We'll be right back after these messages with
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(24:53):
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This excellent documentary film is available at Serpent Rising at
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(25:19):
And on Friday nights too, we do a live portion
for one hour that I just do a live monologue.
The ads are very, very inexpensive, and they're also played
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(25:39):
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find William Ramsey, who's an excellent author at William Ramsey
investigates on YouTube. Okay, welcome back to the Opperman Report.

(26:01):
I'm your host, private in Bbiscator and a Opperman. We're here
today with Kretching Bonaducci. She's the author of the book
Surviving Agent Orange and Other Things I Learned from being
Thrown under the Partridge Family Bus. Hey, do you feel
like you've been thrown under the bus.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
In some ways?

Speaker 5 (26:17):
But actually the title, I was just trying to convey
that my book was funny. So yeah, I was trying
to figure out something that.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
Would be funny.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
Agent Orange is what my assistant and I used to
call Danny. That was his code name, so we'd be
like Agent Orange is coming into the house, you know,
or whatever he was doing. And then I just always
thought something about being thrown under the Partrig's family bus
would be funny and also, quite frankly, I needed to
tie myself to Danny in some way to help sell

(26:46):
the book because I don't have a big fan base.
I don't think most people would be interested in me.
Although I tried to.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Write a book that it didn't matter that it was me,
you know what I mean? That was my goal all along.
I'm just going to write a book. Hopefully people will
like it and then they'll go.

Speaker 5 (27:01):
Oh, weird, it's that girl that was married to Danny.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
So that's just what I tried to do with the book.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, and it's a lot of little anecdotes in it.
I have nothing to do with Danny whatsoever.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Interesting.

Speaker 5 (27:13):
Oh, I wanted to write about my whole life experience.
I mean eighteen years of my life.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
I mean even still I deal with Danny because we
have kids.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
But you know, I had a life before that and
a life after. Like it's been ten years now.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Oh really, do you guys still talk to each other
pretty much?

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Only you know when it has something to do with
the kids.

Speaker 5 (27:33):
I mean, he's married, very happily, married to a really
nice lady. I really love her, and so we really
don't have, you know, anything to talk about other than
our kids.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
Right now.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
You married Danny after eight hours, right, and you do
like a little ceremony when you just hire some preacher
out of the phone book, show up and marry it, right.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, we just.

Speaker 5 (27:54):
Grabbed a Yellow Pages and called somebody, and he didn't know.
We didn't know each other, so you know, when it
got out that he had married people didn't know each other.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
I guess he got into a little bit of trouble.

Speaker 5 (28:06):
So then we hired him because six months later we
did our whole wedding wedding because you know, I'm the
only girl, so my parents really wanted me to have
you know, the white dress and the reception and the
cake and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
So we hired him to remarry us.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
But during that period of time is when that big
famous story happened where Danny somehow wound up in a
car with a transvestite and naked and running.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
But what people don't know is that he was facing
life in prison in that case.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
Apparently he was on probation in the state of Florida
at the time, and one of the charges against him
was reckless and dangerman, which carried a life sentence if
you were convicted of it. So he was in big, big,
big trouble. It was not we really thought he was
going to jail.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
I mean even before we went into court, I think
it was the judge.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
We were behind, you know, chambers, and Danny was signing
paperwork and he pretty much was saying, you're going to.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Go to jail, And then our attorney.

Speaker 5 (29:13):
Was so good that he talked the judge out of
putting him in. So, you know, we were very lucky,
very lucky that he wasn't going to go to jail.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
He had been married, he had been together such a
short period of time, and here you got this guy
with this year long case, all this expenses. Did you
think about leaving them?

Speaker 4 (29:31):
Then?

Speaker 1 (29:32):
No? I never thought during that period.

Speaker 6 (29:34):
Never.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Now that came later, and then I was.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
Thinking about it all the time when he was back
at drugs, and then he was fine.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
He was back on drugs.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
I think I really started to think about it as
my children got older, and I started to realize and.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
It's just a funny thing, but it's true.

Speaker 5 (29:51):
I was watching Doctor Phil one day and he said
children would rather be from a bad situation than in one.
And I felt like, oh my god, I'm keeping my
children in a bad situation, you know. And so that's
what finally made me go was for my kids, you know,
for me, I could make the choice.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
I'm just a tough person. I can put up with
a lot.

Speaker 5 (30:14):
But I was getting fed up, definitely getting fed up
with the whole infidelity, and and so yeah, I just
I felt like no one can tell anyone when it's
the time to go.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
You know. Even my parents were.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
So supportive of us trying to work things out, and
eventually they lost their support or he lost their support,
you know, and that's when I knew too. Okay, my
parents don't even support this anymore. The two best people
in the world that I know are going, you probably
should go now.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
And you think that the main problem was a sex
addiction rather than a drug addiction.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, I think he's actually been diagnosed with that.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
That that's what they originally said.

Speaker 5 (30:55):
And until you deal with that, then the drugs and
the alcohol will never be solved. But I mean that
that's the thing people just don't understand in Hollywood. The
temptation is so great in the city. You know, you
live in a town of beautiful people who are unscrupulous
most of them. You know, nobody cares if someone's married.

(31:17):
It's just the saddest thing in the world.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
You know.

Speaker 5 (31:19):
When I was married to Danny, I didn't even have
an inappropriate conversation with a man, you know, because I
never want to wanted to embarrass Danny where someone would go, oh,
Danny's wife was totally hitting on me, you know, I
just I am not that kind of person, and I think
he just didn't have the character to turn people down.
And he and he had opportunity all the time. When

(31:41):
you're famous, opportunity all the time. There's just on every
corner there's someone that, oh, that famous guy, I could
have sex with him, you know, and you just deal
with that.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
When you're married to somebody who's famous. Everyone out here does.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
I mean, that's why you see marriages aren't able to sustain.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
I don't even know why anyone in Hollywood gets married.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Honestly, Oh, you still in the business, because I know
you don't want pitching shows and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
What are you doing now?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, yeah, I was doing that.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
I occasionally do that, But honestly, I'm kind of fed
up with the people you have to deal with because
you know, let's face that, people that are on TV,
you're already starting with a narcissistic person who's probably gonna
be difficult to deal with, you know. And I've done
so much of that that put myself out there to
help people, and then I get them a deal and
then they won't sign it. So I just decided, you

(32:31):
know what, I'm just gonna deal with helping myself right
now and not keep trying to get other people shows.
I'm not actively looking for a TV show, but I
wouldn't turn it down.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
I mean, it pays really well to be on TV.

Speaker 5 (32:44):
And you know, I am a mother that is trying
to take care of my children and so.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
And I'm paying for a wedding and I'm going to
be paying.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
For boarding school soon. So and Danny's helping me. Of course,
it's we're splitting it all. But yeah, so I wouldn't
turn it down if it was the right circumstance, if
something came along.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
But I'm not actively looking to do it.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
And what about Danny. What does he do for Livna?

Speaker 5 (33:08):
He's still doing radio, he's in Seattle, and as I said,
he's happily married.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
I think he does TV every once in a while,
but I'm not really sure.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
I don't really look, you know, on TV to see
if I see if he's doing anything.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
And you actually want the becoming friends and she wrote
the forward to the book and the introductions of the book.
Adrian Curry who married Christopher Knight.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, he became very good friends.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
She's another girl from the Great State of Illinois.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
She's from Joliet, so we hit it off right away.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
You know, we're both Midwestern girls, both married to ex
child stars.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah, we became very good friends.

Speaker 5 (33:47):
And she is just a wonderful sweet lady and I
just adore her and it was such a huge favor
for her to do that for me, you know that
she took the time to write the forward, and I'm
just really blessed. I mean, I've been lucky to meet
a lot of great women out here and make a
lot of great friendships.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
She married Peter Brady from the Brady Bunch. Now, but
so now what you two had a lot in common,
then what did you to sit around and talk about?
And she got divorced too from him as well, right
she did.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
Yeah, we actually helped each other move quite a few times.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
So we we we we did that a lot.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
We'd come over and helped box things up and move pictures.
And she's a big Beatles fan, so we had to
move all her Beatles memorabilia very carefully.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
But yeah, she she just moved out of state.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Now she sells Avon and is like kicking ass selling Avon,
And uh, she's another one that you know, got fed
up with here and decided to leave La and as
much happier. And I'm actually right behind her.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
As soon as my house sells, I'm going to leave too.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, she had a big group of friends I think
was Facebook at the time when Facebook was first new,
and she had a huge following on social media.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
I think she's got like a million and followers on Instagram, Twitter,
and Facebook.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
I don't even know. But but she's just a sweet,
wonderful girl.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
And I'm so happy that, you know, she's just happy
selling Avon and and you know, moved out of LA
and and that's what I'm going to do next. I mean,
I'm probably not gonna sell Avon, but I am going
to move.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Out of LA.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
And you think you'll go back to Ellen once, Uh.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
You know what, I don't know yet.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
I want to buy like a business, like a Airbnb
or a b and b, or like a wine tasting
place or a vineyard. So I really want to do
something with the last part of my life that is
fun and something that's fine, you know, that I can
leave to my children.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
So that's kind of my plan.

Speaker 5 (35:42):
I'm not sure yet where I'm going to go, but
but it'll be something like that.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Wait, and I asked you before, if you would do
the eight hours, if you would marry somebody after eight hours,
And I really meant, would you do that again?

Speaker 4 (35:51):
Then would you marry someone else? I have to do?
Know one that made I don't see me.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Getting married again at all. Now I don't. I don't
really need that I did it.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
I just feel like marriage, when it goes bad, it
never goes nicely.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
And I just don't want to do that again, you know,
I just feel like I don't need marriage again.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
And now also too, you we dated Bill Hicks.

Speaker 5 (36:15):
I did, yes, And you know what, I would have
never ever said that, because I would have felt people
would have thought I was blowing up my relationship bigger
than it was.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
But I found out he was telling people.

Speaker 5 (36:28):
So then I'm like, oh, I'm telling everybody now now
that I know you were saying it.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, he was.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
Such a genius. It's so funny. Oh my gosh, what
a funny man. I worked at a comedy club in
Chicago back in the eighties, which was the day of comedy,
and so I got to see the greatest people, and yeah,
Bill and I just became friends.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
And then whenever he was in town. We'd go to dinner.

Speaker 5 (36:51):
Go to lunch, hang out after the shows, and I
started to I just met him right when he.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Was trying to stop during King.

Speaker 5 (37:00):
He was another drinker, you know, I, like I said,
I love drinkers.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
Have you ever seen these things on the internet?

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Because but this is what's gonna be the big comments
on YouTube, and this show is up on YouTube, there's
gonna be twenty comments on there about how everyone thinks
that Alex Jones is Bill Hicks.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
Now you knew Bill Hicks. Is there any possibility?

Speaker 1 (37:21):
I don't even know who Alex Jones.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Okay, so.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
These are crazy radio guy. He's a radio host, a
big Trump supporter.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
Oh yeah, no, I don't know who that is. But
but I'm gonna have to go with no one.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
That one. I'm pretty sure he passed away.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
So now what was the divorce? Like, did you guys
have a problem when you were getting divorced?

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Well, I think divorce is never easy, and he did
not want a divorce, and he was, you know, begging
me not to do it, and I just had had enough,
you know, So I had said I'm not Yeah, I'm
really divorcing you and I'm really going to do it
this time, and he was begging me, begging me, please don't, please,

(38:05):
don't like crying.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I'll hurt myself if you do it.

Speaker 5 (38:08):
And I said, you know what, I really hope you
don't do that, but I am going to go. And
so then he left the house, and for like an hour,
I was just agonizing, you know, going, oh my god,
am I doing the right thing?

Speaker 1 (38:23):
What if he does hurt himself? Oh what if I've
done the wrong thing.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
And at that moment, he butt dialed me and I
heard him like totally trashing me to this girl, and
I was like, thank you God, thank you God. That's
all I needed to hear. So, you know, again, just
God worked some mysterious ways. Why would my phone ring.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
At that exact moment? And I sat there for two
hours on the phone and listened to all the bad
things he was saying about me. So yeah, so it
was time to go.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
And you had good reason to be worried about him
hurting himself because that night when we all saw on
breaking bind a duty, would the stupid thing with the
birthday party in the street it was coming over. Yeah,
he splashed his wrist that night.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah he did.

Speaker 5 (39:04):
He did, and I don't think he was it was
an attempt to kill himself. I think he was really
just mad and trying to get my attention. But I
couldn't tell how bad the wounds were. So I called
nine to one one and the call.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
It went through.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
Like he grabbed the phone out of my hand and
threw it on the ground and blew into bits, But
the call got through, and the police showed up anyway,
thank god.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
And you know, he was going, what's wrong, officer.

Speaker 5 (39:35):
Everything's fine, And I'm standing behind him now and I'm
covered in blood because he had slit his wrist and.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
I'm shaking my head. No, it's not, no, it's not.

Speaker 5 (39:42):
So you know, they came in and separated us and
took him, and uh, that was That was a big
wake up call for him that he really was in trouble,
like the steroids now had made him go overboard and crazy.
And it seems like in that episode, if I recollerate,
he was taking some drugs too, like I thought sitting

(40:05):
at the table, he was taking something.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
I don't know what, but it was just it was
a bad night. It was a really bad night, and
I wish it had never happened. But if it was
the catalyst that made him stop doing steroids, that was
a good thing.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
Did they show that him slippings wrists on the show?

Speaker 1 (40:22):
No, they weren't there. They weren't. They had already gone home.
There had gone home, And I left the party.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
Because I didn't like the way he sounded, so I
wanted to go home and you know, just check up
on him and make.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Sure the kids were fine.

Speaker 5 (40:35):
And yeah, so that's why I left the whole party
that night, and they the crew had already gone.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Now was that the only time he ever tried to
harm himself?

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, as far as I know, with me.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
I mean, I couldn't say before me or after, But yeah,
that's the only incident that I ever witnessed with him.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Okay, and again back to the thing with the transvestite.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yes, because my favorite subject.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
Well you know what it really is, because I always
had the picture that the transvesta was in the closet
with him.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
I never knew that it was. It was in his
wife's house.

Speaker 5 (41:11):
He wasn't at the house. In his car, yeah, he
was driving. And his story to me, which I knew
was probably not true, was that there was poor woman
standing on the corner who said she needed a ride,
and then when she got in the car, he realized
it was the man, and he told the man to

(41:31):
get out of the car, and the man demanded to
be paid because he took him.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Off his corner.

Speaker 5 (41:36):
So that was the story that I got, which of
course I figured was not true.

Speaker 7 (41:40):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
And there's a do you know who Johnny B is?
The DJ Johnny B.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
No, I've never heard the name though.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
Oh, he's a He was a really popular dis jockey
in Chicago.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
And with Danny you got the version of what happened
that night depending on who you were talking to. You know,
there was an.

Speaker 5 (41:55):
Oprah version, the Howard Stern version, whatever version he thought
was going to play the best is the one he
would tell who was ever he was talking to, so one,
I guess one time Johnny B took all the versions
and tape them together and then played them. He's like, so, Danny, so,
which exactly is the right version here of what happened?
So I thought that was pretty funny.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
It is pretty funny, And so was it always like that?

Speaker 4 (42:18):
Though? You could never get a straight story out of
this guy.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
Never, No, you really you you totally got whoever you
were talking to, that was the Danny that you got.
You know, when he's talking to Oprah, you get the
Oprah Danny. When he's talking to Howard, you get the
Howard Stern Danny.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
You know. So it just depends on who he's talking to.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
In my opinion, you know that that's that's the you
know version you get.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
But he is an entertainer, that's what he does.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Yeah, how about Howard Stern. You think he'll be on
the Howard Stern Show to promote the book?

Speaker 5 (42:50):
You know?

Speaker 1 (42:50):
I hope so.

Speaker 5 (42:52):
I know that he is said in press at the
time of the show that Breaking by Adici was his
favorite reality show of all time. So I'm hoping that
he'll have this on. That would be a lot of
fun or me anyway.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
But I don't know, you.

Speaker 5 (43:06):
Know, And like I said, I just don't know about
this book ed. I don't know what are people going
to be interested? Well, they get it in the way
that I meant it.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
You know, when people asked me, did you write to
tell our book? I go, no, that just sounds mean.
You know that my.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
Intention was mean if I did something like that, and
that was just never my intention at all. You know,
I think, again, everything happens when it's supposed to.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
For my book to come out during this me too,
you know, a movement that's happening. I think it's the
perfect timing. You know.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
I have a story to tell and I'm going to
tell it, and I think people should be allowed to
do that. And you know, look at all the people
that have come out against Harvey Weinstein.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
You know, they should be able to tell their story.

Speaker 5 (43:50):
And so I feel like this is the perfect timing
for my book to come out.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
I was a little worried too before I got the book,
you know, because it's going to be one of these
heavy books, you know, because your personality on TV is
such a lighthearted person. I was looking forward to the
show here and all the gossip about Danny and stuff
your behind the scenes, looking forward to that, and I
was a little worried about the book and in first.
But it's definitely it's a lighthearted book. There's a lot
of little it's really easy read too. I put this
pick this up a few hours ago and I'm like

(44:16):
ninety nine percent through, which I really do recommend the book,
and the audience does by books. Gretchen Bona Ducci surviving
Agent Orange.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Let's take a little commercial break here. We'll be right
back with more of Gretchen Bona Ducci, and don't forget
you can catch her live. Probably a fun live event
too is at pop up Scure Records on August fourteenth,
then on the fifteenth at the Grove, which is really
cool outdoor mall there in Los Angeles, and again with
their eighties banned at the Grove the next day on

(44:45):
the sixteenth. We'll be right back with more of Gretchen
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(48:41):
and on Friday nights too, we do a live portion
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(49:01):
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Investigates on YouTube. Okay, welcome back to The Opperman Report.

(49:25):
I'm your host, private investigator at Opperman and we're here
with Gretchen Bonaducci. Surviving Agent Orange.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
Is the book.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Gretchen, we were talking a little bit off the air
about Danny when he was growing up, was friends with
Christian Brando and Michael Jackson. The three of them used
to hang out for you, That is true.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Yeah, they went to a school called cal Prep.

Speaker 5 (49:45):
Now I think it was a private school, but maybe
it was like a public alternative school. I don't know,
but yeah, he was friends with all those guys and
Susannah Melvoine, she was.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
In Prince's band.

Speaker 5 (50:00):
Yeah, I think there was a lot of diplomats kids
who went to the school.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
But yeah, I've heard him talk about those stories all
the time.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Do you got any stories, because that must have been
some fascinating crude to be hanging out with over there.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
I remember him telling me that Michael was really quiet,
he really didn't talk that much. And Danny asked him
why it was so quiet, and he said because he was.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
In constant remembrance of God, so he needed to be quiet.

Speaker 5 (50:28):
I remember him telling me that story, and I think
he said Christian Brando was.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Kind of a strange guy.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
I think they all were heavy, I mean, not Michael,
but Christian Danny at that time. I think they all
were like doing a lot of quay ludes and things
like that that we're being in the seventies.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
And what about the allegations that came out about Michael
Jackson later on? Did Danny have any opinion on those?

Speaker 5 (50:53):
You know what, I don't know that he really, I mean,
I'm sure because Danny voices his opinion on everything, but
I honestly don't remember what he said. I mean, I'm
always of the opinion where there's smoke, there's fire, you know,
and when there's too much smoke, it's probably there's a reason.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
And I even feel that way with the tabloids. You know,
when you keep seeing the story.

Speaker 5 (51:13):
Over and over in the tabloids, eventually it becomes true,
you know, like when you see rad and Angelina are
having all these problems and then eventually they got a divorce.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
So I think most of.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
The stuff the tabloids wrote about Danny and I was true.
I think almost all of it.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
How many are you selling those stories yourself?

Speaker 5 (51:31):
Do any selling stories to like star?

Speaker 4 (51:37):
Yeah, like you sell you.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
They don't really.

Speaker 5 (51:39):
Pay you to do those kinds of things, I mean
for yourself. They feel like even on a lot of
TV shows, you don't get paid like extra and all
that kind of stuff because they feel like they're doing
you a favor, you know, covering you, so so that
kind of stuff doesn't ordinarily pay, Like if a person
called in like a spy, they might, but if you

(52:01):
are doing it yourself, usually they don't pay you.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Now, if you're like a big scandal.

Speaker 5 (52:06):
Like Monica Lewinsky or something like that, then they may
pay you.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
But I think for celebrities covering especially a positive story
about you, they're not usually going to pay you.

Speaker 6 (52:16):
For that.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Did he ever talk about his relationship with Shirley Jones
and Marty Engels.

Speaker 5 (52:23):
Yeah, we went to Shirley's birthday parties and Marty was there.
Shirley seemed to be really really happy with Marty, I
mean when we were around them. But yeah, he had
a great relationship with Shirley, with David, and not so
much with Susan.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
I don't think she really.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
Wanted to be part of anything Partridge family.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
So I only met her physically.

Speaker 5 (52:49):
Once, and I think that's because we were on like
Werner Brothers set and she happened to be there too,
But she really has never liked to do anything about
the Party family.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
And what about his relationship with the actor who played
Ruben Kincaid, they had they had a bond together.

Speaker 5 (53:07):
Yeah, yeah, I think they were friends that tel Dave
passed away. We would get letters from him all the time,
you know, just little letters or cards, and he was
a really really funny, wonderful person. And I think, you know, generally,
I think a really good influence on Danny as well,
because you know, his household was a little volatile, which

(53:29):
is you know a lot of how he's the way
he is. You know he and his dad had a
very contankerous relationship.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Yeah, you told a story in the book about how
his dad punched him in the face once I went
and running.

Speaker 5 (53:43):
Yeah right, a friend me and I was pregnant. I
was screaming trying to get in between them.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
It was awful, awful, What.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
An adventure, one thing after another.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Yeah, well, you know that's what I mean.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
I would really love to take this book and make
it into a movie. I kind of see it as
a cross between Bridgittones Diary and it Tanya, like, you
know that I would take those two movies, And that's
kind of the vision I see for my book becoming
a movie and.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
That I would love to do.

Speaker 5 (54:11):
And then I also have a war picture of family
war story that I've been trying to sell for years.
So if this book does anything, maybe it'll open up
that door, which is really the project that I'm so
compassionate about, is the story the worst story about my family.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Okay, great, listen, we only got like a minute left.
How can people get hold you? And what do you
want to leave us with?

Speaker 1 (54:35):
You can reach me. I have Facebook, I have Instagram,
I have a Twitter. I'm pretty sure if you just
put in my name. It all comes up, and you know,
I just want to leave people with that.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
You know, you can have some terrible things happen, and
it's all how you look at it, you know, in
this day and age, with things being so bad and bullying.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
And trying to contribute positively to the universe.

Speaker 5 (55:01):
I mean, that's just kind of what I want to do,
you know, is and that's why I feel so lucky
that I've been able to put a book out. You know,
Danny's had years in radio shows to say whatever he
wants about me, and I want people to form their
opinion by reading my book or hearing my interviews.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
You know, if you don't like me, then fine, you know,
like I represented myself.

Speaker 5 (55:22):
If you go, oh, I still hate you, I'll go, okay,
I accept that.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
I would wager no one's going to hate you. The
book is very lighthearted, it has great attitude, just just
like you said. You know, it's not a down whatsoever.
It's not a hate book.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
It's not a.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Score settling.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
Even people's names that I changed, I had to for
legal reasons, and to me, I didn't care about their name.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
It was the.

Speaker 5 (55:47):
Story that was important, you know, so so I wanted
just to give people a picture about just life in Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
And hard marriages and you know, and I think it
all in there.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
And there's a lot of cute little stuff too. Hey,
we bought a dog. We got this dog. A lot
of really good stuff in the book. Lighthearted book. Gretchen
Bona Ducci, surviving Agent Orange. Gretchen, I really enjoyed the interview.
Is really nice to meet and you if you ever
want to get married.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
In eight hours?

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Are you a drinker?

Speaker 6 (56:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (56:18):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
I had just been sober about one hundred and twenty
days and I just said the past week I've been
drinking again, but I'm stopping once more again.

Speaker 5 (56:26):
Oh well, you know, I kind of feel like I'm
a I don't chrink hard alcohol or beer, but I
love my wine. So I probably should, you know, think
about that at some point of rolling that one back
a little bit.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
Well, if you get that vineyard, then you can think
of it.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Yes, I probably should. Well, thank you so much for
having me on.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
I had such a fun time and I appreciate your time.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
No, thank you, Gretchen, We really appreciate it too.

Speaker 6 (56:48):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I have a great day.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
Can it, okay.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
Then we had Gretchen Bona Ducci Surviving Agent Orange and
other things I learned from being thrown under the Parties
family bus, And I really do. I enjoyed the book, okay,
check it out. A lot of little tidbits in there
about Danny. I just imagine too. Man, she just marries
this guy and now he's facing life in prison, you know.
And she just married him after eight hours and she's

(57:12):
stuck with him for four months to got you listen,
that's no joke if you're gonna be in La and
Beverly Hills. On July twenty sixth twelve noon, John Potash
made a movie out of his book Drugs as a
Weapon against Us, and I'm in the movie. There's a
clip of me in the movie, my interview with Hank Harrison,

(57:35):
so I might be down there myself if I can
get over there again. Thursday July twenty sixth twelve noon
at the Love International Film Festival eight five five six
Wilshire Boulevard, and I'll be interviewing John Pottish over the
weekend to promote the movie and discuss a little clipping
there and stuff like that. John Pottish July twenty sixth.
Drugs is a weapon against us. If you enjoy the show,

(57:58):
please check out Operaman Report. Come our member section exclusive
content in there. I taped a whole bunch of stuff
this week. I got to some girls that were perved
on by Donald Trump. This guy from the UK Wedger
was a cop in UK uncovered these pedophile rings. I
got John Potash coming up. I have Doug Caddy coming up,

(58:20):
who is the first attorney for the Watergate burglars, and
he did a book about his inside information behind the
jfk assassination.

Speaker 4 (58:29):
A lot of good content. Guys.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
Got the Babushka Lady coming up from the is It
Bruta film? A whole bunch of stuff coming up, really
good stuff. Can't beat at the Operaman Report. But we
need memberships to keep the show on the air, so
you become a member at Operamanreport dot com. I'm gonna
be telling a story this weekend about all the.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
Setbacks we had on this trip.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
We got a cracked windshield, we got two tires blown.
I just had to buy a new because the battery
is going dad. But I had my little battery booster
with us on the trip wheel to charge up and
every time we stopped. And also too, I fell asleep
when I was driving.

Speaker 4 (59:08):
I gotta tell you that point.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
I fell asleep driving and actually had a dream. I
was dreaming. Okay, so again, Zeus Man, lucky we made
it alive. Gretchen Bana Ducie Surviving Age and Orange. Thank
you so much, Gretchen. You could check her out August
fourteenth at the Pop Obscure Records, then August fifteenth at
the Grove with a book signing, and then again August

(59:30):
fifteenth August sixteenth at the Grove with her eighties band.
I forgot to ask what kind of music they play,
but she seems like a real rocker, kind of chick,
red hair, fiery, excitable woman. Gretchen Bana Ducci Surviving Age
and Orange. The next Missus Opperman Chrestien Opperman. If I
can just get a hold of her, a