Melissa Gilbert i Timothy Busfield They have been married since 2013 after having a long career in Hollywood.
“Our business in Los Angeles is very difficult because it’s everywhere in this city (and) everybody’s involved in it in some way,” Gilbert, known for playing Laura Ingalls on The little house on the prairie, said during a 2019 interview activated Best Connecticut. “There’s a very strange external pressure to look a certain way.”
Gilbert continued, “(When) I met Tim, he said he lived in Michigan and I said, ‘Take me.’ I just did. I wanted to grow old.”
Gilbert was previously married to Good Brinkman from 1998 to 1994 and Bruce Boxleitnerwith whom the actress shares two children, from 1995 to 2011.
Busfield, on the other hand, was married to Radha Delamarter from 1981 to 1986 and Jenny Merwin from 1988 to 2007. The West Wing The actor shares son Wilson with Delamarter, as well as two younger children with Merwin.
Amidst the couple’s 13-year marriage, it was reported in January 2016 that an arrest warrant had been issued for Busfield following allegations of child sexual abuse. Weeks before the warrant was issued, Gilbert spoke about child sexual abuse and her experience as a 15-year-old child star sharing an on-screen romance with a 23-year-old actor.
Keep scrolling for the timeline of Gilbert and Busfield’s relationship:
2012
Gilbert and Busfield began dating after meeting in a bar in Los Angeles.
“I remember so clearly getting pizza and then looking at the door to make sure there wasn’t much going on,” Busfield recalled. people in 2022. “There was a person sitting at the bar wearing a fedora, and I couldn’t tell who it was.”
Busfield later introduced himself to Gilbert and they talked throughout the night.
“I knew she was the one. It felt so real,” he told the network.
December 2012
Us Weekly gave the news in January 2013 that Busfield proposed to Gilbert over the holidays.
“They’ve known each other for quite some time as their paths have crossed from time to time over the past 20 years,” a source said. we
April 2013
The two actors married in a private ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, where Gilbert wore a red wedding dress.
“It was quite a search. The moment I saw it, I knew it … and the color spoke volumes,” Gilbert said. people of her crimson wedding dress. “Passion, fire, love – red says all these things to me. The dress will always hold our precious, precious memories.”
After they married, Gilbert moved with Busfield to his native Michigan.
2018
The couple traded Michigan for New York City.
“It became important to us to have a place we could escape to,” Gilbert said The New York Times in January 2019 of the New York state fixer upper purchase. “His is one of those places where most people would say, ‘Are you crazy?’ if you expressed interest in buying it. Tim and I are the best kind of nuts. We are hopeful visionaries. We knew this house would shelter us well and serve us well.”
March 2020
Gilbert and Busfield debuted their eponymous podcast “Gilbert & Busfield” amid the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Ultimately, they recorded 18 episodes, recapping their life together and sharing memorable Hollywood anecdotes.
Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield with their two children in December 2025.
Courtesy of Melissa Gilbert/InstagramJanuary 2026
we confirmed on January 9 that New Mexico authorities issued an arrest warrant after Busfield was accused of child sexual abuse. Busfield was not immediately arrested and claimed in an investigative interview that it was “highly unlikely” he had any physical contact with the accusers.
In another part of the order obtained by wea police officer claimed that Busfield and Gilbert revealed that they did have “a relationship” with the alleged victims and their families and once bought them Christmas presents.
Gilbert has not publicly addressed the warrant or his relationship with the accusers. Less than two months earlier, the actress did share a social media post call child sexual abuse “disgusting”.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text the Child Helpline at 1-800-422-4453.