Culture

Where Are They Now: 'Designing Women' Star Delta Burke

Delta Burke at the Designing Women Party in West Hollywood, Calif., Aug. 28, 1987. | Delta Burke at the premiere of 'Get Low' in Beverly Hills, Calif., July 27, 2010.
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August 20, 2015, 8:51 AM

 -- Gone are the bouffant hairdo and heavy makeup of Suzanne Sugarbaker.

These days, Delta Burke, who is best known for portraying the self-centered ex-beauty queen on the 1980s hit show "Designing Women," keeps a much lower profile.

Sporting a simple bob and relatively makeup-free, the 59-year-old actress was last seen in public last December, while walking with longtime husband Gerald McRaney in Studio City, California.

"Everything is fine, I'm just not very exciting right now!" she told the U.K.'s Daily Mail then, adding that despite the fact that there was "no work on the horizon," she was happy with her life.

Burke rose to fame as Suzanne Sugarbaker, receiving two Emmy nominations for the role. She left the show in 1991, following a dispute with producers, but was cast in her own eponymous short-lived sitcom the following year. Other TV appearances throughout the 90s followed.

Although the work slowed down in the 2000s, Burke still had some notable appearances, including a supporting role in the Mel Gibson film "What Women Want" and a guest role on "Boston Legal." She was poised to make a comeback on an ABC sitcom, "Counter Culture," about three sisters running a family diner in West Texas, but after she fell on the set, production was suspended and the pilot was not picked up.

Throughout her career, Burke has publicly struggled with her weight, reaching an all-time high of 215 pounds by the time she left "Designing Women." She has been candid about her ongoing battles with depression and type 2 diabetes.

"I've bounced back from it all," she told Diabetic Living in 2008, after reaching 150 pounds.

Delta credited McRaney, best known for "Simon & Simon," "Major Dad," and more recently "House of Cards" and "Justified," for helping her through the dark times.

"He's been great," she told Diabetic Living about her husband of 26 years. "It didn't matter to him how fat I got. He reminds me what I should be doing or shouldn't be eating. He likes to give me my (insulin) shots and says it makes him feel like he's taking care of me."