Melissa Gilbert shares emotional response to husband Timothy Busfield’s abuse charges
Warning: This article contains allegations of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Melissa Gilbert has defended her husband Timothy Busfield after he was accused of sexual abuse in her first interview since he was charged.
Busfield, 68, has been accused of engaging in unlawful sexual conduct with two 11-year-old boys by Albuquerque police.
It's alleged that the actor met the two boys while he was working on the series The Cleaning Lady.
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The 68-year-old would go on to be indicted with four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under 13 by a grand jury in Bernalillo County, with all of these charges being third-degree felonies.
They are also related to incidents that are alleged to have taken place between 2022 and 2023.
According to police, the boys referred to Busfield as 'Uncle Tim', and initially complained he made them uncomfortable by tickling them when they were seven, but no sexual contact was reported.
Police revisited the matter in 2025 when the boys' mother filed a report with Child Protective Services, after one of them claimed Busfield had touched him in his private parts over his clothes.
The boy said he was 'afraid' to tell anyone because 'he feared Tim would get mad at him'.
Busfield has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He has said the claims are 'all lies, and I did not do anything to those little boys'.
A trial has been scheduled to begin in May 2027.
Gilbert has previously made her support for her husband clear, and reiterated that support in an interview with ABC News.
Asked about how the experience had affected them and what it had been like, she replied: "Hell."
She added: “This has been the most traumatizing experience of our lives.”
Gilbert went on to insist that her husband is innocent of the charges, saying: “[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.”
A representative for Gilbert also told PEOPLE that Gilbert, as well as lawyer Larry Stein, who is representing Busfield, had decided to give the interview with Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos because they 'decided it was time to sit down to clarify the facts of the case, which seem to have become lost to distraction, selective information and clickbait.'
In a preview of the interview shared on YouTube ahead of its full release on April 6, Gilbert also spoke about how the court case has affected their life.
“Our life as we knew it is done,” she said. “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.”
When the case first started, Gilbert wrote a letter to the judge before a court hearing in January standing by him, calling Busfield 'my love, my rock, my partner in business and life'.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Kit Roberts