Woman Who Played Sesame Street’s Maria Admits to Having Flirtatious Relationship With Oscar the Grouch

The woman who played Maria on Sesame Street has confessed to having a flirtatious relationship with Oscar the Grouch.

“That’s absolutely true,” Sonia Manzano, 75 — who depicted the character “Maria” on the long-running children’s education TV show — told Page Six on Wednesday, November 19. “I really love Oscar. He was my favorite Muppet character.”

Oscar the Grouch (played by the late puppeteer Caroll Spinney, who also voiced Big Bird), is a green-colored Muppet who lives among junk in a trash can and is known for his sullen demeanor and love of anything grimy and dirty.

“I always kid around, saying, ‘I left the show because 44 years was long enough for me to wait for him to propose,” Manzano told Page Six.

According to Manzano, it was Oscar’s sense of humor that got her hooked.

“He would just say things, ‘If you don’t want to be a murderer, don’t be around people who shouldn’t be killed,’” she told Page Six. “‘I know my mother used to rock me to sleep, she used real rocks’ … You know, those kinds of quips were endearing to me. I loved it.”

Although Oscar was in a relationship with girlfriend Grundgetta on the show, his affection for Manzano was evident at times.

Oscar once wrote “Trash Poetry” for Maria that bore the line, “Ode to my love” (reciting it while throwing pieces of rubbish on the ground), though he did reject her attempt at a kiss in return. “Let’s not get carried away here,” he told Maria.

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