Melissa Gilbert is leaving New York City behind — at least for now — as her husband, actor and director Timothy Busfield, continues to fight serious child sex charges.
The Little House on the Prairie star revealed she has packed up her longtime one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and is moving full-time to the couple’s upstate New York home. The move comes months after that same property was reportedly raided by federal agents following Busfield’s January arrest.
Gilbert, 62, shared an emotional farewell to her apartment on Instagram, writing that the last eight years in the city had been “so special.”
“So long perfect little one bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side,” she wrote. “A lot of amazing work was done in and around this city. So many theaters and soundstages. So many wonderful dinners with friends and nights out on the town.”
The actress said she will miss the daily rhythm of city life, from subway rides and neighborhood walks to the familiar faces she saw around her Manhattan block.
“I’ll miss the walking and our neighborhood, the subway rides, the amazing people I’ve met there and on the streets. This city truly has a pulse,” Gilbert wrote. “You can feel it in your heart.”
She also gave a heartfelt goodbye to the local places that became part of her routine, including her favorite newsstand, bodega, dance studio, laundry, shoe repair shop, dry cleaners and nail salon.
But while Gilbert’s post was filled with nostalgia, it also hinted that the move comes during a painful and complicated chapter for her family.
“I promise we will be back, it’s just that right now…..well….you know,” she wrote. “Excited to live in our wonderful home upstate full time for a good long while.”
Gilbert did not directly say whether the move was connected to Busfield’s criminal case.
Busfield, 69, was arrested in January in New Mexico on child abuse and criminal sexual contact charges. The allegations reportedly stem from his work on Fox’s The Cleaning Lady in 2022, where he was accused of inappropriately touching seven-year-old twin boys.
The actor, who has denied the allegations, was formally charged on Feb. 6 with four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child under 13. He pleaded not guilty on Feb. 21 after waiving his arraignment and appearances at pretrial proceedings.
His trial is currently scheduled to begin in May 2027.
Shortly after Busfield turned himself in to authorities in Albuquerque, heavily armed federal agents reportedly raided the couple’s Highland Lake, New York, home. Members of the New York Regional Fugitive Task Force allegedly used a battering ram to enter the property before searching the residence and surrounding buildings.
Despite the explosive allegations, Gilbert has stood by her husband.
The actress previously addressed the case during an interview on Good Morning America, saying she was aware of past allegations against Busfield before the two married in 2013.
“I didn’t go into this relationship blind,” Gilbert said, adding that “the internet existed” when she and Busfield got together the year before their wedding.
“I’m neither naive nor am I complicit,” she said. “I talked to him about it. I asked him questions about it.”
Gilbert’s public goodbye to New York now marks a major personal shift for the actress, who appeared heartbroken to leave the city she clearly loves.
For now, she is trading her Upper West Side apartment for a quieter life upstate as Busfield’s legal battle moves forward — and as the couple waits for a trial that is still nearly a year away.
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