{"id":561836,"date":"2026-04-03T08:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561836\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T08:38:09","slug":"melissa-gilbert-defends-timothy-busfield-in-first-interview-since-his-child-sex-abuse-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561836\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Gilbert defends Timothy Busfield in first interview since his child sex abuse charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201cgrieving\u201d Melissa Gilbert said her life with husband Timothy Busfield \u201cas we knew it is done,\u201d as she vehemently defended him in her first interview since the actor was hit with child sex abuse charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has this whole episode been like for you?\u201d \u201cGood Morning America\u201d host George Stephanopoulos asked<\/a> the \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d alum, 61, in a preview clip obtained by People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell,\u201d Gilbert replied. \u201cThis has been the most traumatizing experience of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melissa Gilbert gave her first interview to \u201cGood Morning America\u201d since her husband Timothy Busfield was hit with child sex abuse charges. Youtube\/ Good Morning America<\/p>\n

Busfield, 68, was arrested in January after Albuquerque police accused him of engaging in unlawful sexual conduct with two 11-year-old boys<\/a> he met while directing the Fox series \u201cThe Cleaning Lady.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Bernalillo County grand jury later indicted \u201cThe West Wing\u201d star on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under 13 \u2014 all third-degree felonies tied to alleged incidents in 2022 and 2023. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial, currently set for May 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur life as we knew it is done,\u201d Gilbert continued. \u201cWe are grieving what we had \u2014 all of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects. For Tim, it\u2019s done. He\u2019s canceled. Even if he\u2019s exonerated, he will always be that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert then forcefully defended Busfield. <\/p>\n

\u201c[He\u2019s] the last person in the world who would hurt a child,\u201d she insisted. \u201cAnd believe me, if I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he\u2019d have a lot more to worry about than prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative for Gilbert told People that the actress and Busfield\u2019s lawyer Larry Stein spoke with Stephanopoulos because she \u201cdecided it was time to sit down to clarify the facts of the case, which seem to have become lost to distraction, selective information and clickbait.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busfield has pleaded not guilty to four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under 13. He\u2019s awaiting trial in May 2027. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Busfield surrendered to authorities on Jan. 13 and was released about a week later<\/a> under strict conditions following a pretrial detention hearing.<\/p>\n

He is barred from contacting the alleged victims or their families, cannot have unsupervised contact with minors and is prohibited from possessing weapons or using alcohol or drugs while under court supervision.<\/p>\n

Gilbert has stood by him throughout the case, including writing a letter to the judge<\/a> ahead of the January hearing in which she called him \u201cmy love, my rock, my partner in business and life,\u201d and said she knows him \u201cbetter and more intimately than anything in his life ever has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert and Busfield, who have been married\u00a0since 2013, seen at the Monte Carlo TV Festival on June 20, 2023. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI only want this extraordinary man safe and whole,\u201d she wrote, urging the court to \u201cplease, please, take care of my sweet husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that being unable to protect him herself \u201cis what is truly breaking my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was also seen crying in court<\/a> when a judge granted his release.<\/p>\n

Gilbert and Busfield\u00a0have been married<\/a>\u00a0since 2013. They share five children from previous relationships.<\/p>\n

Busfield\u2019s attorney has sharply criticized the prosecution, calling the case \u201cfundamentally unsound\u201d and pointing to what he described as \u201cfatal weaknesses\u201d in the evidence, while vowing to fight the charges at trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cgrieving\u201d Melissa Gilbert said her life with husband Timothy Busfield \u201cas we knew it is done,\u201d as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[33466,2865,10233,88,12260,12261,194],"class_list":{"0":"post-561836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-celebrity-arrests","9":"tag-celebrity-couples","10":"tag-child-abuse","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-melissa-gilbert","13":"tag-timothy-busfield","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}