{"id":367732,"date":"2026-04-07T11:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367732\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:25:07","slug":"melissa-gilbert-denies-being-naive-or-complicit-in-standing-by-timothy-busfield-despite-sexual-abuse-claims-us-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/367732\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Gilbert denies being \u2018naive\u2019 or \u2018complicit\u2019 in standing by Timothy Busfield despite sexual abuse claims | US crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melissa Gilbert contends she is \u201cneither naive nor \u2026 complicit\u201d having married and deciding to stand by her fellow actor Timothy Busfield amid numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, saying<\/a> she exclusively has \u201cheard his side of the story\u201d and that it is \u201cthe truth\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know this man in my bones,\u201d the former Little House on the Prairie cast member remarked in an interview on Monday\u2019s edition of Good Morning America. \u201cNo one knows him better than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert\u2019s interview with the ABC program marked her first since New Mexico prosecutors in early February charged<\/a> Busfield with child sexual abuse on the set of a television show.<\/p>\n

She had fiercely defended her Emmy-winning husband, whom she married in 2013, from the allegations in an excerpt of the conversation circulated in advance as a preview<\/a>. And she continued maintaining that tone when the full interview with host George Stephanopoulos aired, describing how she was balancing being \u201c100% confident he will be exonerated\u201d while simultaneously striving to prepare for all of the case\u2019s possible outcomes.<\/p>\n

Gilbert also pointedly addressed past cases which authorities had argued establish a pattern of Busfield engaging in sexual misconduct while carrying out his work.<\/p>\n

One such episode involved allegations that Busfield groped a 16-year-old girl while she auditioned at Sacramento\u2019s B Street Theatre, which he co-founded. Authorities said that matter concluded with Busfield attending therapy and the girl\u2019s family agreeing not to report him to police.<\/p>\n

Then, in 1994, a 17-year-old extra on Little Big League, one of Busfield\u2019s movies, claimed he assaulted her after serving her alcohol. Busfield, who had won an Emmy for his performance on Thirtysomething three years earlier, settled the allegations privately while asserting that he was being extorted. He was also ordered to pay $150,000 in costs after he unsuccessfully claimed that the allegations against him had been fabricated.<\/p>\n

Gilbert told Stephanopoulos that she \u201ctalked to [Busfield] about it\u201d before the pair embarked on their relationship \u2013 and she was satisfied with what he had to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am neither naive, nor am I complicit,\u201d she said. \u201cI talked to him about it; I asked him questions about it; I heard his side of the story \u2013 which no one [else] has ever heard, which is the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert said she anticipated Busfield would eventually share \u201cthe truth of these past allegations when he needs to\u201d, though that time \u201cis not now\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know literally everything about him,\u201d Gilbert also said. \u201cHe is nothing if not completely honest with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an honorable, caring, generous human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busfield is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in May 2027 \u2013 he has been allowed to await that proceeding from out of the custody of New Mexico<\/a> authorities.<\/p>\n

Those investigators accuse him of inflicting the acts at the center of the charges against him between November 2022 and the spring of 2024 on the set of the TV drama series The Cleaning Lady, for which he directed and acted.<\/p>\n

Busfield, 68, is suspected of inappropriately touching one boy, in particular, over his clothing once when the child was seven years old and another time at age eight.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s twin brother also reported that Busfield allegedly touched him inappropriately.<\/p>\n

Busfield \u2013 also known for his work on Revenge of the Nerds, The West Wing and Field of Dreams \u2013 has pleaded not guilty. He also has dismissed the accusations as \u201call lies\u201d in a video shared with the entertainment news outlet TMZ.<\/p>\n

Gilbert, 61, echoed Busfield in her talk with Stephanopoulos, saying she spoke to Good Morning America when she did because she and her husband had \u201cbeen hearing and reading too much untruth\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa Gilbert contends she is \u201cneither naive nor \u2026 complicit\u201d having married and deciding to stand by her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-367732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}