Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield have been married for nearly 12 years now, which doesn’t seem mathematically possible, but after the pandemic I’ve broadly come to grips with the fact that time doesn’t follow any rules. In any event, I’m happy for Melissa that she’s found joy and support with Timothy, because the previous guy really put her through the wringer. Melissa was married to Bruce Boxleitner for 16 years before they divorced in 2011. By Melissa’s own account, she had a bit of a mid-life crisis in the aftermath, getting Botox, a convertible, and flaming red hair all in the hopes of feeling younger. But then in 2012 Melissa met Timothy, a few months later they were engaged, and by 2013 they were married and moved to NYC. Cut to now, Melissa is promoting an off-Broadway show, and she told Page Six that LA was not “a safe place for me to age,” whereas she’s relished the experience on the East Coast, declaring that her sixtieth year has been “incredible.”
Melissa Gilbert left Hollywood in 2013 and hasn’t looked back since.
The “Little House on the Prairie” alum, 60, tells Page Six in an exclusive interview that she left Los Angeles for New York City because it was “so anti-aging.”
“I just didn’t feel like that was a safe place for me to age. It’s so anti-aging, which is one of my least favorite expressions in the world,” she says. “Anti-aging means dead.”
Gilbert explains that, while living in California, she felt pressured to confirm and “not get any older and stay at a size 2 or 4 or whatever [she] was at that time.”
However, following her cross-country move, she says that her mentality about aging immediately changed.
“I went from, ‘Oh God, I better not get older!’ to ‘Oh God, I’m so glad I’m older!’” she says. “I love the age I am right now. Sixty has been the most incredible year, just to look back on all the things I’ve done and to know that I’ve earned my opinions, I have value, I am wise.
“I have done so much and I continue to do it and it’s not over by any stretch of the imagination.”
Though the actress is now happily settled in Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood with her husband, Timothy Busfield, she still has a lot of love for LA.
“I did not realize the depth of love that I have for my hometown until the wildfires,” she points out, referencing the Pacific Palisades blaze that started on Jan. 7, 2025. “The amount of people I know who have lost everything, and not movie stars and television stars.
“It’s devastating and I do love so much about Los Angeles. It just wasn’t the right place for me to live any longer but it will always be my hometown.”
I am pro Melissa’s anti anti-aging comments! I know she says a lot of the negative aging feelings came around her second divorce, but I can’t help but wonder about the added impact of her having been a child star. She probably already went through a period of being told “you’re too old for this now,” when she transitioned from child star to young woman. Which is crazy to hear as a twenty-something! But again, I’m just wondering if there’s an extra layer of mindf–k for child stars, like “great, here it comes again!” The main thing is I’m glad Melissa feels not just content, but exuberant with herself these days. She’s also feeling plenty confident enough to clap back at idiots on the internet. And by “idiots,” I mean Megyn Kelly. Megyn, who likely still hasn’t recovered from the plot twist in Conclave (based on an eight-year-old novel), piped up recently to preemptively heckle Netflix not to “woke-ify” the newly announced Little House on the Prairie reboot. Melissa has nothing to do with the reboot (so far), but she schooled Megyn that the original series was plenty woke. As Melissa put it, “the reason I opened my big fat mouth, was because someone else opened hers.” If Melissa ever did a talk show, she should call it Big Fat Mouth in a Little House.
Photos credit Olivier Huitel/Avalon and via Instagram/Melissa Gilbert and pancan