Photo: Bruce Gilkas/Getty Images
In her first sit-down interview since her husband Timothy Busfield’s January arrest on child-sexual-abuse charges, Melissa Gilbert maintained that she is “100 percent confident he will be exonerated.” Still, in the appearance on Good Morning America alongside Busfield’s attorney, Gilbert acknowledged “there is a practical side to this, and we do have to be prepared for all scenarios.” She told GMA’s George Stephanopoulos that no one knows Busfield better than she does, describing him as the “last person in the world who would hurt a child.” She added, “If I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he’d have a lot more to worry about than prison.”
Per People, Busfield pleaded not guilty on February 10 to all four counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor that he faces, tied to allegations that he inappropriately touched two 11-year-old boys on the set of The Cleaning Lady from 2022 to 2024. His attorney accused the child actors’ parents of seeking financial gain and erroneously blaming Busfield when the boys weren’t brought back for the final season of the show. Gilbert suggested that the allegations alone have ruined their lives. “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.”
The criminal complaint against Busfield also referenced two women who accused him of sexual assault in 1994 and 2012, one of whom later settled a case with him. Gilbert confirmed on GMA that she knew about these allegations before she married Busfield in 2013. “I didn’t go into my relationship blind. I’m neither naïve 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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