{"id":2196,"date":"2026-01-21T12:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:34:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:34:02","slug":"melissa-gilberts-move-amid-husbands-child-sex-abuse-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/?p=2196","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Gilberts\u2019 move amid husband\u2019s child sex abuse allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actress Melissa Gilberts\u2019 response has been to stand by her husband, Timothy Busfield, amid child sex abuse allegations.<\/p>\n

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Busfield, an Emmy Award winning actor, turned himself in to police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, four days after a warrant was issued for his arrest and is now in custody at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center.<\/p>\n

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The 68-year-old West Wing star is charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse, stemming from allegations involving 11-year-old twin boys during production of the 2024 series The Cleaning Lady.<\/p>\n

The Bernalillo County District Attorney\u2019s Office plans to seek pretrial detention, with a judge set to decide whether or not he will remain in custody until trial.<\/p>\n

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Before he surrendered, Busfield addressed the nation in a video obtained by TMZ.
\n\u201cHi everybody, it\u2019s Tim. I\u2019m sure most of you know, that are watching this, that I was ordered to come to Albuquerque \u2013 I\u2019m here now. I got the call Friday night, I had to get a lawyer. Saturday I got in the car, drove 2,000 miles to Albuquerque. I\u2019m gonna confront these lies. They\u2019re horrible.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re all lies and I did not do anything to those little boys and I\u2019m gonna fight it. I\u2019m gonna fight it with a great team, and I\u2019m gonna be exonerated, I know I am, because this is all so wrong and all lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo hang in there and hopefully I\u2019m out real soon and back to work. I love everybody for supporting me, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police documents show that Busfield claimed the mother of the alleged victims wanted to get revenge because her children weren\u2019t cast in the last season of the now-cancelled Fox crime series on which Busfield served as executive producer and directed several episodes.Legal support services<\/p>\n

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Melissa Gilbert, who married Busfield in 2013, has deleted her social media account shortly after the warrant for her husband\u2019s arrest was issued, People reported.<\/p>\n

A representative of the actress confirmed she\u2019s staying by her husband\u2019s side. \u201cMelissa Gilbert is not making public statements at this time,\u201d the statement began. \u201cAny purported \u2018statements\u2019 circulating online \u2014 including AI-generated deepfakes of her \u2018breaking her silence\u2019 \u2014 should not be treated as coming from her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cShe is honoring the request of Tim\u2019s lawyers not to speak publicly while the legal process unfolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this period, her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family, as they navigate this moment. Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time. We ask that their privacy be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Weeks prior to her husband\u2019s arrest, Gilbert took to Instagram where she spoke of child sexual abuse. Namely, she responded to Megyn Kelly\u2019s claim that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wasn\u2019t a pedophile because he targeted \u201cbarely legal\u201d minors, \u201clike 15-year-olds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Gilbert recalled the times she started acting as a minor of 15 years, thanking the people she worked with for making her feel safe on set, and warning Kelly to \u201cbe careful with your words.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actress Melissa Gilberts\u2019 response has been to stand by her husband, Timothy Busfield, amid child sex abuse allegations.     Busfield, an Emmy Award winning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2198,"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions\/2198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davisrubin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}