Bryan Cranston is the infamous face of the chemistry teacher turned drug lord in Breaking bad. Mickey Middleton was his wife of five years, short-lived compared to his decades-long marriage with his current wife Robin Dearden.

So why did their marriage end so quickly? And who, after all, is Mickey Middleton?

Who is Mickey Middleton?

Middleton’s ex-husband may be famous for his roles in famous shows like Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the middle, and more. However, Mickey Middleton is famous in her own right as a writer. 

Her writing career isn’t any less inspired than the characters played by Bryan Cranston. She is mainly a children’s books author, though she also has written murder mysteries and much more. If her name doesn’t ring a bell, that could be because she uses multiple pen names. 

These include Mickey MorningGlory, Mickey Middleton, and M.M. Busby. One of her most popular series is called “small tails” inspired by the nature around her home in Northwestern Florida.

Before becoming a writer, Mickey Middleton was a teacher. Becoming a teacher was a dream for her, and when she became one, she did the job of being a public school teacher exceptionally well. 

So much so that she earned the Renaissance Learning Systems, Inc. certification as an Accelerated Reader Model and Master Class instructor. She had always loved acting and storytelling– so much so that not only did she perform at school, she lived in West Hollywood, California to become an actress, writer, and singer.  

As a teacher, her understanding of children grew, and she learned to use stories to teach children. She helped create literacy and computerized reading comprehension programs and a celebrated interactive system that helps improve reading fluency. 

As an actress in California, she was also a fellow of the American Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). Today, it is no wonder that she is a celebrated author. However, to her, it was not always that obvious. 

Even after writing the draft of her first book, “Backtrack: The Scout’s Story”, she wasn’t sure she truly could write. It was only after her father, who was given the draft to proofread, praised it to the high heavens, that she dared to send it to get published.

The marriage between Mickey Middleton and Bryan Cranston

The two were young love birds when they got married, and their tale is one of young love.  The pair met at the Daytona Playhouse which is a fairly popular theatre in Florida. The young Bryan Cranston wasn’t a famous face. 

He was a young man with dreams and a love for acting that far surpassed his peers. Mickey loved acting too, so the two, spent their time together rehearsing and dreaming about when they would be famous.

At this time, Cranston has admitted in the past, they kind of hung around so much that they just were in a relationship. The Breaking bad actor is also on record saying that he doesn’t really remember asking Middleton out. 

It apparently, just happened. He also added that it was something that happened because Middleton wanted it to. All he could really think or care about was his career as an actor. 

To date, however, Cranston has spoken of his ex wife in the most respectful terms. In his book called the “A life in Parts”, he says that back when they were dating, he saw her as a very accomplished, smart woman. 

However, he also does mention that once his stint at the Daytona Summer Music Theater ended, he was ready to move on with his life and career, and say goodbye to Middleton. Instead, she said that she was ready to move with him. 

This summer program is often seen as one of the turning points for Cranston since he was ready to become a police officer, but the program changed his dreams, making him realize that he could actually make it as an actor. 

Thus, despite the fact that Bryan Cranston and Mickey Middleton moved in together, his mind was stuck on the future, and he wasn’t really thinking about the future of their relationship. 

On the other hand, Mickey was dreaming up a picture-perfect family and home with the now famous actor. A couple of years into their relationship, Mickey talked about getting married again, and Cranston said later on in life, that he wasn’t really prepared to be married or become a father as she wanted. 

However, he wasn’t courageous enough to break up with someone like Middleton and the pair got married at Mickey’s parents’ house in Prescott, Arizona. 

Eventually, they realized that they loved each other as people, and even friends, but not as husband and wife. Thus within a few years, they decided to end things. 

A few months after their breakup, Cranston dated another woman who he says in a video with Big Think, turned out to be an obsessive stalker and eventually helped him flesh out the murderous rage of Walter in Breaking Bad. 

He was already not in a good headspace after the divorce, and envisioned very vividly, murdering the girl he was dating in an absolute rage when she tried to attack him. He also mentions that he is thankful for the acting career he has because it allows him a sort of catharsis in his daily life. 

In the end, Cranston and Middleton were in two different places in their lives and were envisioning their lives extremely differently, and thus couldn’t make it work. 

The Malcolm in the Middle actor dreamt about Hollywood’s who’s who, while Mickey wanted a white picket fence life for them both. Those dreams just don’t mesh together, so they moved on and had fulfilling lives without each other. 

Middleton eventually married someone else, and has a son, while Cranston has been married now for thirty years and also has children of his own. In the end, whatever one might make of their comments, no one can deny that they ended up happy with their choices ultimately.