Melissa Gilbert Admits She Was Aware Timothy Busfield Was Accused of Assault Before They Married

Melissa Gilbert addressed her husband Timothy Busfield’s sexual assault allegations in a new interview, and the former Little House on the Prairie star admitted she was aware of the claims before they got married.

“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,” Gilbert, 61, told Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos on Monday, April 6.

“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,” she continued. “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.”

Gilbert noted that allegations involving her husband had surfaced years earlier, including claims dating back to the 1990s and early 2010s that did not result in criminal charges. The couple married in 2013.

“I need to make something abundantly clear. These allegations have been out in the ether for a very long time,” Gilbert explained.

Gilbert, who appeared in the interview alongside Busfield’s lawyer, Larry Stein, said they wanted to do the interview because she “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 January, a New Mexico judge issued a warrant for Busfield’s arrest in connection with allegations involving two minor actors, according to court records and a police affidavit obtained by The New York Times.

Authorities charged Busfield, 68, with two counts of criminal sexual contact or a minor and one count of child abuse following claims of inappropriate touching during his time on the set of The Cleaning Lady.

He was later indicted by a grand jury on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child under 13, according to People. The West Wing alum pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Busfield’s attorneys have previously stated that the allegations were made in retaliation after the children were removed from the series which they claim upset the children’s mother, and added that Busfield plans to fight the charges at every stage and looks forward to testing the State’s case in open court, per the BBC.