Melissa Gilbert stands up with husband, Timothy Busfield, in child sex abuse charges 

Melissa Gilbert has finally come out to speak on the child sex abuse claims that her husband, Timothy Busfield, is accused of. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ame Van Iden, a spokesperson of Gilbert, stated, “Melissa Gilbert is not making public statements at this time. Any purported ‘statements’ circulating online – including AI-generated deepfakes of her ‘breaking her silence ‘ should not be treated as coming from her. She is honouring the request of Tim’s lawyers not to speak publicly while the legal process unfolds.”

The statement continued, “During this period, her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family, as they navigate this moment. Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time. We ask that their privacy be respected.”

Gilbert and Busfield got married in 2013. The star of The Little House on the Prairie recently turned off her respective social media profiles. Her business account, Modern Prairie, has been operational; however, on Wednesday, the brand cancelled a virtual Q&A scheduled for January 16.

Her husband, Timothy Business, a West Wing alum, was given a warrant on January 9 in New Mexico.

Busfield turned himself in to the police on January 13 and posted a video where he denies all charges, adding: “They’re all lies and I did not do anything to those little boys, and I’m gonna fight it. I’m gonna fight it with a great team, and I’m gonna be exonerated, I know I am, because this is all so wrong and all lies.”
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The performer has received two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and a count of child abuse. The Albuquerque Police  Department reported that, to direct Fox’s The Cleaning Lady in 2024, Busfield inappropriately touched 11-year-old twin boys, according to the New York Post.

This is an extra charge which was revealed in a pretrial detention motion submitted on Jan 14, initially procured by the People. It takes in the motion that the father of another victim, Colin Swift, alerted authorities that Busfield had allegedly sexually abused his daughter during an audition in the theatre he owned, called the B Street Theatr,e which then was called the Theatre for Children, Inc.

Busfield apparently pleaded with the family not to call law enforcement in case he received therapy, and Swift himself, being a therapist himself, believed that to be the correct course of action at the time.