\u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d alumna Melissa Gilbert remains steadfast in her support for husband Timothy Busfield, the Emmy-winning actor who has been embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal since earlier this year. <\/p>\n
Gilbert, in her first sit-down interview since Busfield\u2019s indictment in February, told ABC News\u2019 George Stephanopoulos she trusts her husband \u201cwith my children\u2019s lives, my grandchildren\u2019s lives, my nieces and nephews\u201d and said she expects the \u201cThirtysomething\u201d star will be exonerated at trial next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve 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 she said in part of the interview<\/a> that aired Monday on \u201cGood Morning America.\u201d<\/p>\n In February, a New Mexico grand jury indicted<\/a> 68-year-old Busfield on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child. A month prior, New Mexico officials accused Busfield of of inappropriately touching two child actors, who are brothers, during his time as an actor, director and producer on the Fox crime drama \u201cThe Cleaning Lady.\u201d<\/p>\n One child actor alleged that Busfield had first touched his \u201cprivate areas\u201d multiple times on set when he was 7, according to the complaint. He said Busfield touched him inappropriately again several times when he was 8. The affidavit also detailed a police interview with Busfield in which he suggested that the boys\u2019 mother might have sought \u201crevenge\u201d on the director for \u201cnot bringing her kids back for the final season.\u201d<\/p>\n Busfield turned himself in to law enforcement<\/a> days after the warrant was issued and denied the accusations. He was jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque but was released<\/a> on his own recognizance Jan. 20.<\/p>\n For Gilbert, 61, the allegations and ensuing chain of events have been \u201chell.\u201d Recent months have brought \u201cthe most traumatizing experiences of our lives,\u201d she told Stephanopoulos, adding, \u201cOur life as we knew it is done.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple married in 2013. \u201cThe West Wing\u201d actor Busfield has three adult children from two previous marriages and is the stepfather to Gilbert\u2019s two adult sons from her two previous marriages. When the allegations first surfaced, a publicist for Gilbert said the actor would not comment on her husband\u2019s case, denounced \u201cany purported statements\u201d and said that Gilbert was focused on caring for her and Busfield\u2019s family. <\/p>\n During the Monday interview Gilbert said she and her husband are \u201cgrieving what we had: all of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects.\u201d She said her husband has become persona non grata \u2014 \u201ccanceled,\u201d in her words \u2014 and that the allegations will continue to cast a shade over his career \u201ceven if he\u2019s exonerated.\u201d Busfield\u2019s lawyer Larry Stein and Gilbert both told Stephanopoulos they are confident that will be the case. <\/p>\n When asked what justice for her husband might look like, Gilbert replied: \u201cExoneration and apology. Free him from this cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the interview, attorney Stein doubled down on his belief that the child actors and their parents are \u201cabsolutely\u201d making false allegations against Busfield. The actors\u2019 parents did not respond to ABC News\u2019 request for comment. <\/p>\n Gilbert also told Stephanopoulos that before she married Busfield, she was aware he had been accused of sexual harassment twice by different women, once in 1994<\/a> and another time in 2012.<\/a> Those two cases were mentioned in the January complaint against Busfield.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t go into my relationship with him blind. I am neither naive nor am I complicit,\u201d she said, adding she and her husband discussed those claims. \u201cI 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d alumna Melissa Gilbert remains steadfast in her support for husband Timothy Busfield, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[9257,38257,64910,192708,36412,13097,16457,88,111709,195490,29084,251056,3381,271,8208,2384],"class_list":{"0":"post-568771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-abc-news","9":"tag-actor","10":"tag-allegation","11":"tag-busfield","12":"tag-case","13":"tag-child","14":"tag-director","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-george-stephanopoulos","17":"tag-gilbert","18":"tag-husband","19":"tag-husband-timothy-busfield","20":"tag-interview","21":"tag-life","22":"tag-month","23":"tag-time"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568771","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=568771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}