Melissa Gilbert was aware of Timothy Busfield allegations before marriage

Jami Ganz, New York Daily News on Apr 6, 2026

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NEW YORK — Melissa Gilbert revealed in her first interview since husband Timothy Busfield’s arrest for child sex abuse that she’s been aware, since the early days of their relationship, of other troubling allegations against him.

The “Little House on the Prairie” alum, 61, told “Good Morning America” correspondent George Stephanopoulos, in an interview that aired Monday, that she wants to make “abundantly clear” she was not blindsided by claims against her Emmy-winning husband, 68.

Asked about “two separate” sexual assault allegations in 1994 and 2012, Gilbert — who met the “West Wing” alum in 2012 and wed him the following year — said, “These allegations have been out in the ether for a very long time.”

“When Tim and I got together, the internet existed. I didn’t go into my relationship with him blind. I’m neither naïve, nor am I complicit. I talked to him about it, I asked him questions about it. I heard his side of the story, which no one has ever heard, which is the truth,” said the former SAG-AFTRA president.

Gilbert said recent months have been “hell,” calling them “the most traumatizing experience of our lives.”

“Our life as we knew it is done. We are grieving what we had. … For Tim, it’s done. He’s canceled. Even if he’s exonerated, he will always be that guy, the last person in the world who would hurt a child,” said Gilbert, who said she has “not for a second” succumbed to any doubt.

“I know this man in my bones. No one knows him better than I do,” she said, adding that she happens to “trust him with my children’s lives, with my grandchildren’s lives, my nieces and nephews.”

Still, Gilbert vowed “when the time is right, and that is not now, Tim will tell the truth of all of these past allegations when he needs to.”

In February, Busfield was indicted for alleged inappropriate behavior with a pair of young twin brothers between November 2022, when they were 7, and spring 2024 on the set of Fox’s “The Cleaning Lady.”

Busfield pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence. He’s dismissed the claims as retaliation due to the boys being recast on the series, which was canceled this past summer.

During the “GMA” interview, Busfield’s attorney and Gilbert said they believe the boys’ parents are making up the claims for financial gain. Gilbert said justice, to her, would mean “exoneration, an apology, freedom from this cloud.”