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 during a 2019 interview on Better Connecticut. “There’s a really strange external pressure to look a certain way.”
Gilbert continued, “[When] I met Tim, he said he was living in Michigan, and I said, ‘Take me.’ I was just done. I wanted to age.”
Gilbert was previously married to Bo Brinkman from 1998 to 1994 and Bruce Boxleitner, with whom the actress shares two children, from 1995 to 2011.
Busfield, for his part, was married to Radha Delamarter from 1981 to 1986 and Jenny Merwin from 1988 to 2007. The West Wing actor shares son Wilson with Delamarter, as well as two younger children with Merwin.
Amid the pair’s 13-year marriage, news broke in January 2016 that an arrest warrant was issued for Busfield after allegations of child sex abuse. Weeks before the warrant was issued, Gilbert spoke out about child sex abuse and her experience being a 15-year-old child star sharing an onscreen romance with a then-23-year-old actor.
Keep scrolling for Gilbert and Busfield’s relationship timeline:
2012
Gilbert and Busfield started dating after they met in a bar in Los Angeles.
“I remember so clearly grabbing pizza and then looking in the door to make sure there wasn’t a lot going on,” Busfield recalled to People in 2022. “There was one person sitting at the bar and she had a fedora on, and I couldn’t tell who it was.”
Busfield subsequently introduced himself to Gilbert, and they spoke throughout the evening.
“I knew she was the one. It felt so real,” he told the outlet.
December 2012
Us Weekly broke the news in January 2013 that Busfield proposed to Gilbert during the holidays.
“They’ve known each other for quite some time, as their paths have crossed off-and-on over the past 20 years,” a source told Us.
April 2013
The two actors tied the knot in a private ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, where Gilbert wore a red wedding dress.
“It was quite a search. The moment I saw it, I knew … and the color spoke volumes,” Gilbert told People of her crimson bridal gown. “Passion, fire, love: Red says all of those things to me. The dress will always hold our precious, precious memories.”
After getting married, Gilbert moved in with Busfield in his native Michigan.
2018
The pair traded Michigan for New York City.
“It became important for us to have a place where we could escape,” Gilbert told The New York Times in January 2019 of purchasing fixer-upper in upstate New York. “his is one of those places that most people would say, ‘Are you nuts?’ if you expressed interest in buying it. Tim and I are the best kind of nuts. We’re hopeful visionaries. We knew this house would shelter us well and serve us well.”
March 2020
Gilbert and Busfield debuted their eponymous “Gilbert & Busfield” podcast amid the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. They ultimately recorded 18 episodes, recapping their life together and sharing memorable Hollywood anecdotes.
January 2026
Us confirmed on January 9 that New Mexico authorities issued an arrest warrant after Busfield was accused of child sexual abuse. Busfield was not immediately arrested and claimed in an investigation interview that it was “highly unlikely” he had any physical contact with the accusers.
Elsewhere in the warrant obtained by Us, a police officer claimed that Busfield and Gilbert revealed they did have “a relationship” with the alleged victims and their families and once purchased them Christmas gifts.
Gilbert has not publicly addressed the warrant or her relationship with the accusers. Less than two months earlier, the actress did share a social media post calling child sexual abuse “disgusting.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
