{"id":386162,"date":"2026-04-07T10:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/386162\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T10:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:28:16","slug":"melissa-gilbert-says-she-knew-about-husbands-assault-allegations-before-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/386162\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Gilbert Says She Knew About Husband\u2019s Assault Allegations Before Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The actor is facing four counts of criminal sexual contact with a child<\/a> in New Mexico, stemming from the set of \u201cThe Cleaning Lady,\u201d a Fox TV series Busfield directed and acted in, between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old Busfield pleaded not guilty to the charges, but two previous allegations of sexual assault against him from 1994 and 2012 have resurfaced as a result<\/a> of the publicity surrounding the case.<\/p>\n

Gilbert, 61, who has been married to Busfield since 2013, responded to the resurfaced allegations during an interview airing Monday on \u201cGood Morning America.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

She insisted that Busfield is innocent and \u201cthe last person in the world who would hurt a child.\u201d<\/a> She said she did her due diligence on her husband\u2019s past before they got married.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am neither naive nor am I complicit,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cI 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. And 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert said she knows Busfield \u201cin my bones,\u201d and no one knows him better than her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know literally everything about him,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cOur marriage has \u2015 you know, we\u2019ve had a lot of ups and downs. We\u2019ve been through struggles. We\u2019ve had our own issues to deal with, and we\u2019ve worked through everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is nothing if not completely honest with me. I trust him with my children\u2019s lives, with my grandchildren\u2019s lives, my nieces and nephews. He is an honorable, caring, generous human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first resurfaced accusation against Busfield came from a 17-year-old girl who accused him of sexually assaulting her<\/a> on the set of the 1994 movie \u201cLittle Big League.\u201d Busfield settled a potential suit for an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n

The second case stems from 2012, when a 28-year-old woman alleged that Busfield groped her breasts and genital areas<\/a> while on a date at a Los Angeles movie theater. No charges were filed, and prosecutors \u201cpassed due to slim evidence.\u201d Busfield \u201ccalled it consensual,\u201d according to a warrant obtained by People.<\/p>\n

Busfield\u2019s trial on the newest allegations is set to begin in May 2027.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The actor is facing four counts of criminal sexual contact with a child in New Mexico, stemming from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,51374,61,60,32699,122889],"class_list":{"0":"post-386162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-good-morning-america","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-melissa-gilbert","14":"tag-timothy-busfield"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}