Who is Melissa Gilbert’s husband now? All about actress’s marriage as she details the tumultuous Rob Lowe relationship

Melissa Gilbert has been with actor and director Timothy Busfield for over a decade. Their relationship began in 2012 when the two met at a bar. Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield got married on April 24, 2013.

Before she shared her vows with Busfield, Melissa Gilbert had weathered more publicized chapters in her romantic life, including a six-year relationship with actor Rob Lowe. On the I Choose Me podcast with Jennie Garth, Gilbert revisited that period. She stated,

“I guess looking back on those six years, I mean, I was such a baby when Rob and I were together, I was 17 and we broke up for the last time when we were 23 and it was very tumultuous.”

The conversation turned toward what it meant to fall in love under the spotlight. Melissa Gilbert recalled being a veteran in the industry by the time she and Lowe met.

“I felt like a bit of an old sage in the business at that point because I'd been doing it for so long, and I was still on Little House on the Prairie when we met, and it had already been years, and he was sort of starting out. He'd done a little bit of television. And so I was able to sort of sit back and watch this meteoric rise happen.”

Still, fame brought complications she hadn't fully expected. She explained,

“I don't think I was prepared for the stuff that came with it, necessarily, I was prepared for all of having to go to premieres and things and award shows and all of that, but I wasn't prepared for the fandom and frankly, the girls.”

Melissa Gilbert on life, love, and letting go of the past

As per People Magazine, back when she was dating Rob Lowe, Melissa Gilbert believed she could count on women to look out for one another. That hope, she later said, quickly faded. She stated,

“I always thought that every girl and woman was my sister. We're sisters, but it was not evident at all when Rob and I were a couple, I mean, it was like I didn't exist. They just pushed right past me and stick phone numbers in his pockets and stuff.”

By 1987, the relationship had ended. Gilbert described it as a hard as well as horrible time and not without lasting impact. She said she learned a lot about what works for her and what doesn't in a romantic relationship. She admitted that it helped her realize what she would not stand for in the future.

Still, she refused to paint the entire experience in one tone.

“They hurt. They’re hard because they usually are born of heartbreak and angst, but those are really valuable and important lessons… We had some really, really, really fun times.”

Now, with time and distance, Melissa Gilbert finds clarity in contrast.

“But in looking back, I look at the way my life is so easeful now and I look at it back then, and I feel like my shoulders were always up by my ears, always waiting for the next shoe to drop or something bad to happen or some, I don't know, something untoward or gross.”

Melissa Gilbert opens up about leaving Hollywood pressures behind

Melissa Gilbert was just ten when she stepped into the role that would define her early life: Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. As she grew up on screen, the line between the character and the girl behind her began to blur. For nearly a decade, she lived under a national spotlight that rarely dimmed. But years later, far from Hollywood’s grip, Gilbert found herself choosing something quieter. When asked about the reason for leaving Hollywood, she said,

“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 traded red carpets and studio lots for the wooded calm of the Catskills, where she settled down with her husband, Timothy Busfield. That move, and the life that followed, didn’t just change her environment; it shifted the way she saw herself.

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Gilbert and Busfield launched a podcast together in 2020, which they simply called Gilbert & Busfield, in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic. In May 2022, Gilbert's book, Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Discovered, was published. She discussed her decision to live a natural lifestyle in the Catskill Mountains with Busfield in the book.

She discussed how the industry that raised her had pushed her to chase youth at all costs. For a long time, she played along, relying on cosmetic tweaks and the pressure to stay camera-ready. Eventually, though, that effort became exhausting. With time and support, she stepped back. She let go of the beauty standards she'd been shaped by, stripped things down, and chose simplicity. Looking back, it wasn’t just a lifestyle change. It was a return to herself.

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