Melissa Gilbert Says Meeting Husband Timothy Busfield Was Like 'Getting Hit' with a 'Thunderbolt' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield in Monte-Carlo, Monaco in June 2023.Photo:Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

“It sounds cliché to say it, but it really was like getting hit with a thunderbolt,” she tells PEOPLE, adding, “It just seemed right and inevitable. … The next morning when I woke up, my first thought was, ‘I’m going to marry him,’ and I then my next thought was, ‘You’re a crazy person.'”

“Then I thought, ‘Well, why don’t we start withbrunch?’ and I grabbed my phone, and I went to text him to ask if he wanted to meet. He texted me [at the same time] and asked if I wanted to meet for brunch,” she continues. “That’s when I thought, ‘Maybe I’mnotso crazy. Maybe this is right.’  We met for brunch, and I knew … It just made sense.”

Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert in New York City in April 2018.Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

The pair moved to New York City in 2018, then purchased a home in upstate New York a year later, which the couple affectionally calls “The Cabbage.” Along the way, Gilbert launchedModern Prairie, a lifestyle brand for “seasoned women,” which she co-owns and runs alongside cofounder Nicole Haase, a former Williams Sonoma executive who now serves as the company’s CEO.

Prior to getting married, Gilbert and Busfield were twice divorced and had children from previous marriages. Gilbert — who was married to Bo Brinkman from 1988-1994 and Bruce Boxleitner from 1995-2011 — has two adult sons, Dakota and Michael. Busfield, meanwhile, had three children, Samuel, Daisy and Wilson.

Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert in Santa Barbara, California in February 2019.Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

With time often comes knowledge and wisdom, and Gilbert believes her past relationships helped pave the way for the “adult, perfect partnership” she’s now fortunate to be in.

“By the time you get to be the age we were when we met, you know what you don’t want. Even more than you know what you do, you know what you will not put up with ever again and that changes everything,” says Gilbert, adding, “I was never again going to be with someone with whom I did not agree politically. I wasn’t going to bend myself to be quiet because their opinion needed to be louder and different.”

“He walks into walls, he trips, he’s a clown,” she says. “The other thing about him that just melts me is that he’s possibly one of the most talented people I have ever met in my life. I love to watch him work, whether it’s as an actor or a director or a writer or a producer, whatever he’s doing. Even when he was teaching college, it is so inspiring and the level of the depth of his talent — it’s breathtaking.”

Timothy Busfield and Melissa Gilbert in New York City in January 2020.Lars Niki/Getty

Lars Niki/Getty

It also doesn’t hurt that Busfield is a “huge fan” of Gilbert’s work. The Emmy-winning actor — who has appeared inThirtysomething,Field of Dreamsand currently serves as executive producer and director ofThe Cleaning Lady— enjoys watchingLittle House on the Prairiewhen it’s on. “If we’re flipping channels and it happens to be on, he will land on the channel and watch, so I consequently will watch with him,” the actress adds.

But a mutual sense of deep “respect” for each other remains the ultimate key to their thriving, laughter-filled partnership.

“We have respect for one another’s opinions, respect for one another’s pasts, respect for one another’s abilities and this tacit agreement that we never really discussed that just happened, that we are partners in everything, in every decision, in every idea, in every move,” she says. “We are one in making those decisions, and neither one of us is better at anything than the other or greater than anything than the other.”

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Allnineseasons ofLittle House on the Prairiecan be streamed on Prime Video and Peacock.

source: people.com