Melissa Gilbert Played Laura Ingalls for 9 Seasons. Her Husband Is Facing 4 Counts of Criminal Sexual Contact of a Minor. A DNA App Just Handed Her 3 Older Brothers.
Photo Sam Wasson / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
Melissa Gilbert, the Little House on the Prairie star, was adopted at birth in 1964 in Los Angeles and raised by actor Paul Gilbert and Barbara Cowan. Her birth mother, Kathy Wood, died before the two could ever meet.
Her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, was indicted by a Bernalillo County grand jury on February 6 on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor, tied to alleged incidents involving twin boys on the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” which filmed from 2022 to 2024. He has denied the allegations. Gilbert has stood by him publicly, telling Good Morning America in April she is “100% confident he will be exonerated” and calling the case “the most traumatizing experience of our lives.” She moved out of their New York apartment in June while the case continues. They remain married.
A few weeks ago, a genealogy app connected Gilbert with her fifth biological cousin, Harry Lee Scott. His research traced her birth mother’s side of the family and led her to 3 older half-brothers she never knew existed.
“I’ve always said that I don’t have a family tree, I have a family shrub,” she wrote. “It’s now more of a climbing rose vine. Covering an enormous wall with its many different shapes and colored blooms.”
There’s Matt, who is 66. There’s Laird Steven E. Paine. And there’s Mark A. Olson Sr., who died years ago, though his son Mark Olson has joined the family circle too.
Decades ago, Gilbert found her birth father’s family, including 3 older half-siblings on that side. Those relationships, she wrote, were “a bit fraught. Not very close and still full of secrets.” This time, the tone was different. “My older brothers are fantastic human beings,” she said. “Matt and I are becoming especially close.”
Matt shared his own reaction to finding her. “Before anyone asks, the part that means the most to me isn’t that she’s a public figure,” he wrote. “It’s that we’ve finally found each other after a lifetime apart.” He credited that same cousin for connecting all the dots, and added that “family has a funny way finding each other, even after 62 years.”
Enjoyed this story? Give us a follow on Facebook, and find plenty more on the Thought Catalog website.
