Melissa Gilbert cancels Instagram amid husband's child sex abuse scandal

Melissa Gilbert has deactivated her Instagram account amid her husband Timothy Busfield's child sex abuse allegations.

The Little House on the Prairie star removed her profile after authorities in New Mexico issued an arrest warrant for Busfield on Friday.

The warrant alleged that the Emmy-winning director and actor engaged in sexual conduct with two boys.

An investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department filed a criminal complaint in support of the charge, which says a child reported that Busfield touched him inappropriately.

The incidents allegedly occurred on the set of The Cleaning Lady, a TV series Busfield directed and acted in between January 2022 and June 2025.

On 15 November, seven weeks before the charges against her husband, Gilbert reflected on her own experience as a child actor.

As a teenager on the hit TV drama series, she filmed romantic scenes with a love interest played by Dean Butler, who is nine years older than her.

"So, I debated posting this, but I feel compelled to share. After seeing many women's posts with the hashtags #iwasfifteen #imfifteen #iwasachild, I decided to Google search myself at that age and see what came up. And this is some of what I found," Gilbert wrote in the caption of her Instagram post at the time.

"And now, at this age, at this time, I am actually nauseated. The girl on vacation in Hawaii with her family is the same girl who was expected to 'fall in love with' and kiss a man on film who was several years older than she was," she continued, referring to working with Butler.

"Through the lens of today, this is shocking. I was a child," Gilbert concluded.