Niamh Shackleton
Melissa Gilbert insists that she didn't enter her marriage to Timothy Busfield 'blind', and that she knew about the previous sexual assault allegations he'd faced.
Gilbert and Busfield wed in 2013, a year after The West Wing actor was accused of groping a 28-year-old woman in a Los Angeles theater.
Busfield insisted that what happened was 'consensual' and prosecutors went on to decide not to file charges against him.
Prior to that, Busfield was accused of behaving inappropriately towards a teenage extra on Little Big League, which he also denied.
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A civil lawsuit was filed against him in 1994 and, two years later, a judge ordered Busfield to pay $150,000 to a law firm after rejecting the actor's claim that the firm fabricated a sexual assault case against him, PEOPLE reported.
Now Busfield is facing more allegations and has been indicted on four criminal counts of sexual assault of a child in New Mexico.
The reported incidents occurred on the set of The Cleaning Lady - which he directed and produced - and involved two 11-year-old boys.
He denies the most recent allegations he's facing and his wife, Melissa Gilbert, has also insisted he's innocent.
In a newly aired interview today (April 6), Gilbert sat down with Good Morning America to discuss her husband's case where interviewer George Stephanopoulos asked her about the previous allegations Busfield has faced.
Gilbert responded: "I need to make something abundantly clear. These allegations have been out in the ether for a very long time."
She went on: "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.
"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."
Elsewhere in the interview Gilbert said that her husband would never hurt a child.
"[He’s] the last person in the world who would hurt a child," the actress shared. "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."
Busfield's criminal trial is scheduled to begin in May 2027.
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.