00:00What has this whole episode been like for you?
00:02Hell, this has been the most traumatizing experience of our lives.
00:07Melissa Gilbert is speaking out for the first time since her husband, Timothy Busfield,
00:12was charged with child sex abuse, and she's making it clear she's standing firmly by his side.
00:17In a preview clip from her interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America,
00:22the Little House on the Prairie alum described the ongoing legal battle as devastating,
00:26saying their lives have been completely upended.
00:28Our life as we knew it is done.
00:31We are grieving what we had.
00:33All of our plans, all of our dreams.
00:3568-year-old Busfield was arrested in January after Albuquerque police accused him of engaging in unlawful sexual conduct
00:41with two 11-year-old boys he met while directing the Fox series The Cleaning Lady.
00:46A Bernalillo County grand jury later indicted the West Wing actor on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a
00:53minor under 13.
00:54All third-degree felonies tied to alleged incidents in 2022 and 2023.
00:59He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial, which is currently set for May 2027.
01:0461-year-old Gilbert acknowledged the lasting impact the accusations have had on their lives, regardless of the outcome.
01:10For Tim, it's done. He's canceled. And this will never, even if he's exonerated, he will always be that guy.
01:18Despite the charges, Gilbert strongly defended her husband, insisting she does not believe the allegations against him.
01:24The last person in the world who would hurt a child. And believe me, if I thought for a second
01:29that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he'd have a lot more to worry about than prison.
01:33A representative for Gilbert said she agreed to the interview in order to clarify the facts of the case, which
01:38they claim have been overshadowed by distraction, selective information, and clickbait.
01:43Following his arrest, Busfield surrendered to authorities on January 13th and was released about a week later under strict conditions.
01:50He is barred from contacting the alleged victims or their families, cannot have unsupervised contact with minors, and is prohibited
01:56from possessing weapons or using alcohol or drugs while under court supervision.
02:01Gilbert has remained publicly supportive throughout the case, even writing a letter to the judge ahead of his January hearing.
02:06In it, she described Busfield as my love, my rock, my partner in business and life, adding that she knows
02:12him better and more intimately than anything in his life ever has.
02:16She also urged the court to keep him safe, writing that being unable to protect him herself is what is
02:20truly breaking my heart.
02:22Meanwhile, Busfield's attorney has pushed back on the allegations, calling the case fundamentally unsound, and pointing to what he described
02:28as fatal weaknesses in the evidence, while vowing to fight the charges at trial.
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