Melissa Gilbert to Judge: ‘Take Care of My Sweet Husband’

Timothy Busfield is being removed from the upcoming Amazon MGM rom-com You Deserve Each Other as a criminal case against him progresses. The 68-year-old actor and director will be edited out of the film following charges in New Mexico accusing him of sexually abusing a child, Variety reports.

This marks the second professional impact for Busfield since the allegations came to light. Earlier this month, NBC pulled a scheduled episode of Law & Order: SVU featuring him as a guest star, which had been set to air on Thursday.

An arrest warrant was issued on January 9, charging Busfield with sexual abuse involving a minor. The allegations relate to his work directing twin child actors in 2022 on the Fox series The Cleaning Lady. Busfield surrendered at the Metro Detention Center in Albuquerque on January 13 and is being held pending a court hearing on Tuesday. He faces two counts of criminal sexual contact with a child, each carrying a potential six-year sentence, and one count of child abuse, which could add up to three years.

TMZ reports that it has recordings of November 2024 police interviews with the two boys involved, in which they deny that Busfield ever touched them inappropriately.

Meanwhile, Busfield’s wife, actor Melissa Gilbert, has written a letter to the judge asking the court to “please take care of my sweet husband,” according to ABC News. “As he is my protector, I am his, but I cannot protect him now, and I think that, more than anything else, is what is truly breaking my heart,” she wrote. She also described Busfield as having “the strongest moral compass of any human I have ever known” and noted that he “has dedicated his spiritual self to always being of service to others.”

Gilbert’s letter is among dozens of support messages submitted on Busfield’s behalf, including from her son Michael and his Thirtysomething co-stars Ken Olin and Peter Horton. People magazine reports that Gilbert is living through what an insider describes as a “nightmare” since the allegations surfaced.

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