Melissa Gilbert believes her husband, Timothy Busfield, will be cleared of the child sex abuse allegations he faces.
The actor and director has been charged with four counts of criminal sexual intercourse with a child on set, and is awaiting trial. He has been accused of sexually assaulting two boys on the set of the former Fox/Warner Bros. television series. Cleaning lady.
“[This has been] Hell. “This has been the most traumatic experience of our lives,” Gilbert said Monday. Good morning Americain her first interview with co-anchor George Stephanopoulos, along with Busfield’s civil attorney Larry Stein. “Our life as we knew it is over. We grieve what we had. All our plans, all our dreams, all our ideas, all our projects. For Tim, it’s over. It’s overturned. Even if he’s acquitted, he will always be accused.” This man. “The last person in the world would hurt a child.”
“And believe me, if you thought for a moment that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he would have a lot more to worry about than prison,” she added.
She said she had no doubt about his innocence, but hoped for an apology and vindication. “I know this man in my bones,” she said. “No one knows him better than me.” “We’ve been through our marriage… We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs. We’ve been through struggles. We’ve had our own issues to deal with, and we’ve worked through everything. He’s nothing if not completely honest with me. I trust him with my children’s lives, my grandchildren’s lives, my nieces and nephews. He’s an honorable, caring, generous human being.”
Gilbert said she chose to speak out now to address the “lies” they were reading and hearing about her. She added: “I am 100% sure that he will be acquitted, but I will tell you that there is a practical side to this matter and we must be prepared for all scenarios.”
Busfield denied the accusations. The charges against Busfield relate to alleged touching on two separate occasions, once in October 2022 and again in September 2023. Each charge carries a minimum sentence of three years, and cannot be suspended or deferred. Busfield was released from prison after his arrest.
Busfield’s defense centered around arguments that the twins’ parents were looking for revenge on Busfield for recasting them in Season 4 of the Fox series after they had outgrown their roles. “When they got fired, they assumed Tim was responsible for it,” Stein said. “But the truth is, he wasn’t.” GMA. Stein was asked about the allegation in the criminal complaint that Busfield and Gilbert bought Christmas gifts for the twin child actors, and Stein said the gifts were given to several children at the Christmas party. He said: “Tim did not give the boys gifts. Melissa gave them gifts.” “Every child at a birthday party, we don’t treat them special or different from anyone else.”
Gilbert and Bousfield married in 2013. Also in her interview, Gilbert said she was aware of separate allegations against her husband that were included in the criminal complaint of child sexual abuse to allege a pattern. the Thirty something and West wing The star was accused of sexual assault by two women in 1994 and 2012; Charges were not brought in either case. “These allegations have been in the ether for a very long time,” she said. “I’m neither naive nor complicit. I talked to him about it. I asked him questions about it. And I heard his side of the story, which no one has heard before, and it’s the truth. And when the time is right, which is not now, Tim will tell the truth about all these past allegations when he needs to.”
Busfield’s trial is tentatively set for May 2027 in New Mexico.
ABC News has reached out to the children’s parents. In a statement to ABC News, the district attorney’s office said its focus “remains on the victims.”
