Betty Lynn hid her secret crush on Andy Griffith so she wouldn't ''hurt anyone's feelings''

Andy once wrote to Betty Lynn, ''You were Don's girl, but you should’ve been mine.''

In an unexpected episode of The Andy Griffith Show called "Cyrano Andy," we watch Andy pay a visit to Barney's girlfriend Thelma Lou and declare, "Thelma Lou, I want you for my own."

Everyone in the audience watching was in on the joke, knowing that Andy's plan was to declare his love so that Thelma Lou would realize her true feelings for Barney.

However, according to Thelma Lou actor Betty Lynn, this love triangle actually did play out in a subdued way behind the scenes of the show — just the opposite of the way you might expect!

Instead of crushing on her onscreen love Don Knotts, Lynn found herself falling for the show's star. By that point, Griffith had been married to his first wife Barbara for 12 years, though, so Lynn respectfully didn't act on her feelings.

“I had a crush on [Andy Griffith],” Lynn said, relating the story in the book Andy & Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show. "But he was married, and [Barbara] was a lovely lady."

The furthest she went was when she once told Andy: "I wish you were twins, because that way there'd be one for Barbara, and one for me."

Lynn then went on to describe a publicity photo of her and Andy Griffith that was circulated when the show was on the air. In it, her hand is resting on his knee. It's possibly the only photo evidence of their flirtation.

At the same time, Lynn said that Knotts would also come around to see her when she appeared on the show.

"[Don] had poetry he had written that he would read to me," Lynn remembered.

But it was Andy for whom she continued to harbor quiet feelings, and later on, she even asked him if he would sign one of his portraits to her. What he wrote would fuel the flames of any crush: "You were Don's girl, but you should’ve been mine."

Lynn said she kept the photo and the inscription a secret because she "didn't want to hurt anyone’s feelings."

Eventually, Andy and Barbara divorced in 1972, after which Griffith remarried twice, but he and Betty Lynn never struck up a romance. She also never dated Knotts. However, she did continue to hold out for a love that was solely hers.

We've told you the story before about how she got engaged to the same man three times, before ending things for good four days before the wedding. Why? Because her fiancé admitted he had feelings for another woman. When she called the church to cancel, the bishop said, "I'm sorry."

She replied, "I'm not."

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25 Comments

Ron750 12 months ago
This is very disappointing. I grew up in NYC in the ‘60s. Shows like this and Leave It to Beaver made suburban and rural America look like great places, with nice people. I live in rural Wisconsin now. My wife and I have been married 42 years. Always faithful, three kids, six beautiful grandchildren.

The more I read about what happened to stars of the past, the more I’m glad to just be middle class.
Jonathan_nyc_ 45 months ago
wow this is shocking never knew this lots of behind the scenes
Pacificsun 45 months ago
Neither in defense nor offense, in reference to all the "cheating" comments below, just because the setting is television and these personalities are revered actors, doesn't mean they act out any differently that a portion of the population. Most stories of which you never hear about. Only because publicity and talking tongues aren't trailing around after them. Lesson: respect their talent, discount their weaknesses!
Pacificsun 45 months ago
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Pacificsun 45 months ago
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Pacificsun 45 months ago
Another great backstory. Which is why it's always enjoyable to keep watching TAGs. Little things to look for!
Pacificsun 45 months ago
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Tlor 45 months ago
Note that Aneta nor Betty Lynn married or had children. To me Andy was a total player and apparently he left them so that they never did much in life, not a nice man. Like that character he played in A Face in the Crowd
Tlor 45 months ago
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007 45 months ago
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TheDavBow3 45 months ago
A very neat story 😊
TheDavBow3 Mike1305 45 months ago
Unfortunately, there's alot of rude, mean hateful people in this world!!
Deleted 45 months ago
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45 months ago
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LC1962 45 months ago
She probably reads these comments and that's not a nice thing to say. I respect her for not wanting to break up a marriage.
krisbchef 45 months ago
I’m guessing theirs a reason you don’t have your picture posted on here, lol..
Your comment isn’t very nice at all, you should be ashamed.
KathyMcKinny 45 months ago
Uhhh....Andy cheated NUMEROUS times with Helen Crump & probably others as well.
If he knew how she really felt, she would have just been another notch on his bedpost.
45 months ago
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45 months ago
Betty Lynn was a class act. Can't say the same for Aneta Corseaut.
KathyMcKinny Pilaf 45 months ago
Not her fault Andy was a cheater, besides he was married....she WASN'T, so she did nothing wrong, Andy was the 1 cheating on his wife.
Jack KathyMcKinny 44 months ago
The fact she wasn't married doesn't absolve her of wrongdoing.. Seriously do you really believe that having an affair or sexual contact with a married person makes you innocent?.. If you do I feel sorry for you, as you don't understand knowing a person's married makes you just as guilty as them, you're participating in the adultery the same as the married person.. Which makes you just as guilty as them.
Ron750 KathyMcKinny 12 months ago
Cheating with a married person, even someone just in a relationship, is wrong. It takes two to tango.
FrankensteinLover 45 months ago
Andy seemed to be a Well Loved Man beyond the Show. Lol
FrankensteinLover 45 months ago
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I was meaning Loved as in he had alot of Women after him.
FrankensteinLover 45 months ago
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Kenner 45 months ago
So nice to know Betty Lynn is still among the living at the ripe old age of 94.👍😀
denny 45 months ago
Andy was having an affair with Aneta Corsaut during the shows run and after. Her brother said Andy wanted to marry her, but she didn't want to be tied down.
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Lilmo 45 months ago
Hello Doll!
Krn 45 months ago
Yes!!
Bardown1 45 months ago
Hello Birney!!
RobertK 45 months ago
I loved their gin-soaked, smoky voices!!
Jonathan_nyc_ 45 months ago
hey bernie!!!
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