Melissa Gilbert, Her Husband, Age and Net Worth

TLDR: Melissa Gilbert, who grew up on screen as Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, is 62 and married to actor Timothy Busfield. He has pleaded not guilty to charges in New Mexico, and she says she is certain he will be exonerated. Checked October 15, 2026.

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Most of us met Melissa Gilbert when she was nine years old, squinting into the prairie sun as Laura Ingalls. She was born in Los Angeles on May 8, 1964, per Wikipedia, which makes her 62 now.

It is a strange thing to watch a child grow up in your living room, and then spend decades checking in on her. Here is where her life has landed, and the full cast story lives in what happened to the Little House on the Prairie cast.

Who Is Melissa Gilbert’s Husband?

Gilbert is married to actor and director Timothy Busfield, and they wed on April 24, 2013. It is her third marriage.

They lived in Howell, Michigan, from 2013 to 2018, then moved to New York City and bought a cottage in the Catskill Mountains. That cottage later inspired her lifestyle brand.

Her Three Marriages

She was married to actor Bo Brinkman from 1988 to 1994, and then to actor Bruce Boxleitner from 1995 to 2011. The second marriage ran sixteen years.

Wikipedia says she has two children and names one, Michael, who was born on October 6, 1995, to Boxleitner. He was named after Michael Landon, which tells you how much the man who played Pa still meant to her.

Was Melissa Gilbert Engaged to Rob Lowe?

She was, and it was very much a teen magazine romance of its day. Wikipedia says Lowe was her fiancé at the 1985 unveiling of her Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

No engagement date is on record, and she wrote about the relationship in her memoir Prairie Tale.

What Is the Timothy Busfield Case?

This is the hard part of her story right now, so here is what has been reported and nothing more. A New Mexico grand jury indicted Busfield on February 6, 2026, on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor, per ABC News.

The charges involve a child actor on the set of The Cleaning Lady, which Busfield directed in Albuquerque.

He pleaded not guilty, and Yahoo Entertainment reported that he waived his arraignment and court appearances. A judge had earlier released him on his own recognizance pending trial, according to Fox 13.

ABC reported that the trial is tentatively set for May 2027. The case is ongoing, and Busfield is presumed innocent.

His attorney has disputed the allegations, while Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office has said a neutral grand jury indicted him.

What Has Melissa Gilbert Said?

Gilbert has stood by her husband in public. She told ABC News she is “100% confident he will be exonerated,” and added, “I know this man in my bones.”

ABC reported that she said she knew about earlier allegations against him before their relationship began. Those allegations led to no criminal charges, according to the criminal complaint ABC cited.

Wikipedia says she deactivated her Threads accounts after the warrant was issued in January.

Melissa Gilbert’s Early Life and Adoption

Her story started well before the cameras. Wikipedia says she was adopted the day after her birth by actor and comedian Paul Gilbert and dancer Barbara Crane, who was the daughter of Harry Crane, the man who created The Honeymooners.

Her parents divorced when she was six, and her mother later remarried. Her half sister, actress Sara Gilbert, was born in 1975.

Paul Gilbert died in 1976 when she was a little girl. Gilbert has written that she was told he had a stroke and learned years later that he had taken his own life.

She has since met her birth father, and Wikipedia says she learned in 2026 that she has three older biological brothers. For a woman who spent a career playing the heart of a close family, that is a lot of family to find late.

How She Got the Role of Laura Ingalls

Gilbert was already a working child, with dozens of commercials behind her. Wikipedia says Leslie Landon, Michael Landon’s daughter and her schoolmate, told her she had won the role over more than 500 other girls.

The pilot was shot in 1973, and the series ran on NBC from 1974 to 1983. That is nine years of growing up where everyone could see.

Her bond with Landon was close and then complicated. Wikipedia says it soured after his affair became known, and she visited him shortly before he died in 1991.

Her Career After Little House

Child stars rarely get to choose their second act, and Gilbert worked steadily anyway. She starred in TV movies in the 1980s, including Choices of the Heart in 1983 and Family Secrets in 1984.

She voiced Batgirl on Batman: The Animated Series from 1992 to 1994, which surprises people who only know her in a bonnet. She also played Anna Sheridan on Babylon 5 in 1996.

Guest spots followed on Touched by an Angel, 7th Heaven and Nip/Tuck, and more recently she has appeared on When Calls the Heart.

On stage she played Caroline Ingalls, Ma herself, in the 2008 musical Little House on the Prairie. It started at the Guthrie Theater and toured through 2010.

President of the Screen Actors Guild

This is the part of her résumé that fans forget. Gilbert won the SAG presidency in 2001 after a contentious race against Valerie Harper.

She was re-elected in 2003 with about 50% of the vote and served until February 2005. Not many child actors end up running their own union.

Dancing with the Stars

She competed on season 14 in 2012 with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and took a scary tumble in week four. She hit her head during a paso doble and suffered a mild concussion.

She went home to recover, came back, and finished fifth.

Her Run for Congress

Gilbert announced a run for Michigan’s 8th congressional district as a Democrat on August 10, 2015. It did not go the way she hoped.

An opposing spokesman attacked her over back taxes, and Wikipedia says she owed about $360,000 in federal taxes and $112,000 in California taxes. She blamed a stalled acting career, the economy and her divorce, and said she had an IRS repayment plan.

She dropped out in May 2016, citing health issues.

Health Issues

Gilbert has been candid about the rough years. In her late thirties she struggled with addiction to prescription medication and alcohol, which she described in Prairie Tale.

In 2010 a doctor found she had been performing with a broken back for months, and surgery that July fused a vertebra. She had her breast implants removed in January 2015 for health reasons, and she lives with misophonia, a strong reaction to certain sounds.

Books and Modern Prairie

Her memoirs are Prairie Tale in 2009 and Back to the Prairie in 2022. She also wrote the children’s book Daisy and Josephine and My Prairie Cookbook, both in 2014.

She launched Modern Prairie, a lifestyle app for women, in 2022. Of all the ways to cash in on a famous childhood, it is a graceful one.

How Much Is Melissa Gilbert Worth?

Celebrity Net Worth lists $500,000, and it describes the figure as a combined total with Busfield. It also says she owed $360,000 in federal income taxes in 2015.

Take that number with a grain of salt. The site gives no as-of date, and it lists just one career earning, $75,000 a week for Little House.

Her Reunion With Melissa Sue Anderson

One bright spot in recent months is a reconciliation fans waited decades to see. Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson, who played Mary Ingalls, reunited backstage in New York on December 26, 2025, and you can read the full story in their feud and reunion.

More on the Little House Cast

For the man who built the show, see Michael Landon’s Bonanza and Little House years. Netflix has also remade the series, and we cover its cast, release date and reviews.

Melissa Gilbert: Frequently Asked Questions