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Timothy Busfield’s wife, Melissa Gilbert, publicly spoke out about child sex abuse just weeks before an arrest warrant was issued for The West Wing actor tied to two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse.
“So, I debated posting this but, I feel compelled to share. After seeing many women’s posts with the hashtags #iwasfifteen #imfifteen #iwasachild, I decided to google search myself at what age and see what came up,” Gilbert, who starred on Little House on the Prairie as a child, wrote via Instagram on November 15. “And this is some of what I found…and now, at this age, at this time, I am actually nauseated.”
Alongside her lengthy caption, Gilbert, shared photos of herself as a child star on set, posing with her costar Dean Butler, who was 23 when he played 15-year-old Gilbert’s onscreen love interest. In one photo, the two actors could be seen kissing despite their 8-year age difference.
“The girl on vacation in Hawaii with her family is the same girl who was expected ‘to fall in love with’ and kiss a man on film who was several years older than she was,” Gilbert continued. “Through the lens of today, this is shocking. I have no words other than to say, ‘I WAS A CHILD.’ ‘I WAS FIFTEEN.’ And I was the good news.”
She added in the caption, “Thank God my mom and Michael and so many others were there to make sure I was safe. Can you imagine if I hadn’t had them all? I am so fortunate (Sort of). Many other young women aren’t.”
At the time, Gilbert was responding to now-viral comments made by former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who argued that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “was into the barely legal type,” seemingly insinuating that he was not, in fact, a pedophile.
“He liked 15-year-old girls. And I realize this is disgusting. I’m definitely not trying to make an excuse for this. I’m just giving you facts, that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds,” Kelly said at the time. “But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passerby.”
Weeks later, on Friday, January 9, authorities in New Mexico issued an arrest warrant, obtained by Us Weekly, against Gilbert’s husband, Busfield. The warrant alleges the actor and director engaged in unlawful sexual conduct with two 11-year-old twin boys on the set of the TV series The Cleaning Lady.
One of the minors alleged that the sexual abuse started when he was 7.
Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield have been married since 2013 after each having longstanding careers in Hollywood. “Our business in Los Angeles is very difficult because it’s everywhere in that city [and] everybody’s involved in it in some way,” Gilbert, best known for starring as Laura Ingalls on The Little House on the Prairie, said […]
According to an affidavit, also obtained by Us, the boy was “very afraid of Tim and was relieved when he was off set.” The boy also stated he “was afraid to tell anyone because Tim was the director, and he feared Tim would get mad at him.”
In the arrest warrant, an investigator did conduct a phone interview with Busfield while his wife was present and on speaker phone.
“Timothy, and his wife, Melissa, did tell me before this, they did have a relationship with [the young boys] and their family outside of work,” the investigator writes in part. “They advised that they did buy the two boys Christmas gifts and were together on several social functions.”
Us has reached out to representatives of Busfield for comment.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
