Melissa Gilbert pushes back on ‘untruth’ as husband faces child sex abuse charges
Melissa Gilbert publicly addressed long-circulating allegations involving her husband, Timothy Busfield, as he faces fresh child sex abuse charges.
In the criminal complaint against the "West Wing" actor, two separate allegations from Busfield's past were mentioned. Busfield was accused by two women of sexual assault stemming from incidents in 1994 and 2012. Gilbert insisted she knew "the truth" of what happened when she married Busfield in 2013.
"I need to make something abundantly clear," Gilbert, 61, said during an appearance on "Good Morning America." "These allegations have been out in the ether for a very long time."
"When Tim and I got together, the internet existed. I didn't go into my relationship blind. I'm neither naive nor am I complicit," she said. "I talked to him about it. I asked him questions about it. I heard his side of the story — which nobody 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."
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A grand jury indicted Busfield on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child earlier this year. He pleaded not guilty to all charges on Feb. 11. Two 11-year-old twins alleged that the director had touched them inappropriately while working together on the set of "The Cleaning Lady."
During her first sit-down interview, Gilbert insisted Busfield isn't capable of doing what the young boys have accused him of.
"No one knows him better than I do," she explained. "I know literally everything about him. Our marriage has, you know, we've had a lot of ups and downs. We've been through struggles, we've had our own issues to deal with and we worked through everything."
"He's nothing if not completely honest with me," Gilbert added. "I trust him with my children's lives, with my grandchildren's lives, my nieces and nephews. He is an honorable, caring, generous human being."
Gilbert and Busfield were both previously married and blended their families in a wedding ceremony held in April 2013.
Gilbert is a mom to two adult sons, Dakota and Michael, while Busfield is a dad to three kids – Samuel, Daisy and Wilson.
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The "Little House on the Prairie" star said this has been "the most traumatizing experience of our lives," and admitted the allegations have upended their future for good.
"What has this whole episode been like for you?" George Stephanopoulos asked Gilbert. "Hell," she responded.
"Our life as we knew it is done," she quickly explained. "We are grieving what we had – all of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects. For Tim, it's done. He's canceled. Even if he's exonerated, he will always be that guy. [He’s] the last person in the world who would hurt a child. And 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."
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Busfield had turned himself in to authorities in January on related charges by police and was released from jail by a judge who found no pattern of criminal conduct or similar allegations involving children in Busfield’s past. The grand jury indictment allows the case against Busfield to proceed toward possible trial without a preliminary courtroom hearing on evidence.
An investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department said a boy reported that Busfield touched his private areas over his clothing when he was 7 years old and again when he was 8, according to the initial criminal complaint from police. The boy’s twin told authorities he was also touched by Busfield, but he didn’t say anything right away because he didn’t want to get in trouble, the complaint said.
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Each count in the indictment against Busfield carries a possible penalty of six years in prison that can be enhanced if it involves a sexual offense, according to prosecutors.
Gilbert explained why she chose to speak out now, after months of silence from the actress.
"It's time," she said on "GMA." "We've been hearing and reading too much — untruth," she added. "And we felt that the time was right to speak out. Also, honestly, I wasn't capable until now. It's been a very traumatic time."
Busfield's lawyer, Larry Stein, told Fox News Digital: "We appreciate George for taking the time to clarify some important facts in this case. We hope the remainder of the interview airing on tonight's 'Nightline' will make clear that the parents are criminals: one served more than three years in jail and lost their license to practice law for defrauding 1,500 people of $6,000,000, and the other for writing bad checks and stealing cars."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.