What Timothy Busfield Did to Melissa Gilbert the Night They Met That ‘Turned [Her] Into a Puddle of Mush’
Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield technically met in 1991 at the Emmys. Busfield won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on thirtysomething and Gilbert gave a tribute to her former co-star Michael Landon, who’d died that year. But they really met in 2012 when they were the only two people in a bar. Here’s how the couple got together and what Busfield did as he was leaving that made Gilbert’s heart melt.
Melissa Gilbert ran into Timothy Busfield when she wasn’t looking for love
Gilbert didn’t wait long to hop back into the dating pool after her divorce from second husband Bruce Boxleitner. But after some self reflection, she decided to concentrate on herself and take a break from dating.
One night, she had plans to go out dancing with some friends. She and one of her friends, Daniel Robb, were going to stop at a bar before heading to the club. Upon arriving, Robb realized he’d left his phone at her house, so he turned back to go get it while Gilbert waited for him in the bar. She was alone. Until who walks in but Busfield. About a week prior, Gilbert had friend requested him on Facebook and now here he was a couple of stools down from her in the flesh. They started chatting.
“Gradually, I leaned in until I moved one stool closer to him,” Gilbert wrote in her 2022 memoir, Back to the Prairie. “He did the same. We played that game until we were sitting next to each other and engrossed in conversation. The bar could have been filled with people and a rock band playing live and we wouldn’t have noticed.”
How Timothy Busfield said goodbye to Melissa Gilbert the night they met in a bar
Gilbert was so engrossed in her conversation with Busfield that she hadn’t noticed her friends had been waiting for her for hours. Danny went up to Gilbert to check in.
“I don’t want to do this,” she whispered to him. “I’ve lost my mind. But he’s cute, right?”
Her friend later told her that Busfield had “cartoonlike stars coming out of [his] eyes.” The feeling was mutual.
Eventually, Busfield told Gilbert he had to get going. They exchanged numbers, then just as Busfield got up to leave, Gilbert says he “gave my right earlobe a gentle tug, which turned me into a puddle of mush right there on my bar stool.”
Gilbert and Busfield got brunch the next morning
After Busfield left, Gilbert and her friends went dancing until two a.m. When the Laura Ingalls actor woke up the next morning, she was thinking about Busfield. So she texted him asking if he’d like to meet for brunch. He told her he was just about to text her the same thing.
It was an easy match, and it felt right. Busfield got along with Gilbert’s family, he was well-liked by his colleagues, and he was talented.
“From then on, I didn’t have a single moment where I thought I wasn’t sure or that connecting with Tim wasn’t great,” wrote Gilbert.
About a year later, the two got married and they’ve been together ever since.
Read more about Gilbert’s life and relationships in Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered.
