‘GMA’: Melissa Gilbert Fiercely Defends Timothy Busfield Through Tears

Warning: The following post reports on allegations of child sexual abuse.

Actress Melissa Gilbert has defended her husband, Timothy Busfield, amid his recent arrest on charges of sexual abuse against a minor, saying he is “the last person in the world who would hurt a child.”

The Little House on the Prairie alum opened up for the first time in an interview on Good Morning America on Monday (April 6), where host George Stephanopoulos asked her about the charges against her husband.

Busfield is alleged to have engaged in sexual conduct with two 11-year-old twin boys he met on the set of the Fox drama The Cleaning Lady, on which they were child stars and he was a director, according to a warrant issued on January 9. He denied the charges, turned himself in on January 13, and was released from custody in New Mexico a week later.

“I know this man in my bones. No one knows him better than I do. I know literally everything about him,” an emotional Gilbert told Stephanopoulos, per Variety. “Our marriage has had a lot of ups and downs, we’ve been through our struggles, we’ve had our own issues to deal with, and we’ve worked through everything. He is nothing if not completely honest with me.”

She continued, “I trust him with my children’s lives, I trust him with my grandchildren’s lives, my nieces and nephews. He is an honorable, caring, generous human being.”

The West Wing star was indicted on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor (child under 13) on February 6, and he pleaded not guilty to the four counts in New Mexico’s Second Judicial District Court on February 10. He remains free as he awaits his upcoming trial.

Gilbert, who married Busfield in 2013, said the allegations have destroyed their lives. “This has been the most traumatizing experience of our lives. Our life as we knew it is done. We are grieving what we had. All of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects,” she stated. “For Tim, it’s done. He’s canceled… even if he’s exonerated, he will always be that guy. The last person in the world who would hurt a child.”

She added, “Believe me, if I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he’d have a lot more to worry about than prison.”

In a statement to TMZ in January, Busfield said, “I’m going to confront these lies. They’re horrible. They’re all lies. And I did not do anything to those little boys, and I’m going to fight it. I’m going to fight it with a great team, and I’m going to be exonerated.”

This isn’t the first time Busfield has faced allegations of sexual abuse. In 1994, a 17-year-old extra on the film Little Big League accused the actor of sexually assaulting her in his trailer. Busfield denied the allegations and filed a countersuit, though he eventually settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

In 2012, a 28-year-old woman accused Busfield of groping her during a date, but the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office declined to file charges due to insufficient evidence. Busfield described the contact as “consensual.”

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After the charges stemming from The Cleaning Lady went public in January 2026, several other accusers have come forward. A man told law enforcement on January 14 that Busfield abused his then-16-year-old daughter during an audition years earlier.

In March, actress Claudia Christian accused Busfield of sexually assaulting her on the set of the 1991 film Strays, when she was 26 years old. She said she reported the incident to the assistant director and her husband at the time, but did not go to the police.

That same month, a woman said Busfield sexually assaulted her at the B Street Theatre in 1996 when she was a 16-year-old intern. Another woman said Busfield inappropriately touched her when she was working as a personal assistant for him and his wife from 2017 to 2019, when she was 22 years old.

Busfield has denied all allegations.