Melissa Gilbert Mourns Daveigh Chase After Her Death: ‘Truly Heartbroken'

Melissa Gilbert is paying tribute to former costar Daveigh Chase after her death.

"This is the @daveighchase.official I knew," Gilbert, 62, wrote via Instagram on Monday, June 29, sharing a photo of Chase as a child. "I shot a pilot for a series with her 20+ years ago. Two wonderful humans @thejackcoleman and @kevinzegers1984 played my husband and son, respectively. I only worked with Daveigh a couple of days but I could see she was bright both in countenance and in mind. She was bubbly, sweet and professional."

She continued, "But there was something else there, a push or need to perform …for her parents. I have been around a lot of child actors, myself included, which makes us all a part of a big multigenerational tribe. As a consequence, I've also been around a lot of stage parents. Many child actors grow up just fine, whether they stay in ‘the business' or not. That is 100 percent due to really solid, wise parenting."

Gilbert reflected that "child stardom" is "not a guarantee of dysfunction."

"However, when a parent or parents lose sight of who THEY are, of what their true responsibility is, and their lives revolve solely around their little star child, well, that's where the trouble begins. It takes strong parenting to handle all that comes with it," she wrote. "The terrible part is, that so few child actors continue on to have careers as actors. For most, it goes away, and when that happens it not only devastates the child but it turns the whole family upside down."

Gilbert shared that she was "truly heartbroken" after learning the cause of Daveigh's death. (Us Weekly exclusively confirmed on Monday via the Los Angeles medical examiner that Daveigh died of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome with other significant conditions including chronic polysubstance use.)

"I certainly understand substance addiction disorder but this sweet girl's death is so much more," Gilbert wrote. "If I had the chance to speak to any parents who were thinking about getting their children in the industry I would tell them to please, please make sure that they are doing it for the right reasons."

She continued, "That they will take the child to an accountant regularly so that he or she knows exactly what he or she is making, and where it is going. To be sure it's something the child really wants. To be sure that that child has a life outside of the industry that is thriving and full of friends and responsibilities and ‘normal' things. I would also ask that these parents memorize this sweet girl's face and her story so that it never happens again."

News broke earlier this month that Chase died at age 35. Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, confirmed her death to TMZ and shared that she had died after battling meningitis and an infection in her blood that led to sepsis.

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This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 11:15 AM.