‘Little House on the Prairie’ Alum Karen Grassle Is Dating a Man She Fell ‘in Love With’ 64 Years Ago

Karen Grassle has found love with a former flame.

In an interview with People published Friday, December 12, Grassle, 83 — who famously starred as Caroline ‘Ma’ Ingalls on the beloved show Little House on the Prairie — revealed she is dating sculptor Robert Gove, and the pair have a long history.

The actress explained that last year she attended the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, where they celebrated the 50th anniversary of Little House, and decided to make a pit stop in Carrara, Italy, to see Grove.

“I looked at a map and I saw that Carrara was just down the coast, and I thought, gosh, well, maybe I could go and visit [him] after all this time,” Grassle told the outlet, referring to Grove as “[A man] I was in love with when I was young.”

“When I first met him, I was only 19 years old and I was just starting my life in the theater,” she recalled. “Everything was new and exciting!”

However, Grassle shared that she and Grove “lost touch many years ago.”

“I was able to get an email, which wasn’t easy at first. I said, ‘How would you like a visitor?’ And he was enthusiastic,” she recounted. “It was quite a surprise to find how close we felt when we saw each other.”

“We met up again and we fell back in love,” she added.

As for the future, Grassle is all in on her not-so-new romance, even planning to live in Italy part-time as she told the publication, “This morning I did the final signing for a nice little apartment here in Carrara.”