Melissa Gilbert, who is married to actor Timothy Busfield, is speaking out for the first time since her husband was charged with child sex abuse.
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In a preview of an interview with Gilbert on “Good Morning America,” Gilbert said the past few months have been “the most traumatizing experience of our lives.”
The full interview is set to air on “Good Morning America” on Monday.
When asked by “GMA” host George Stephanopoulos why she is speaking out now, Gilbert said: “It’s time.”
“Our life as we knew it is done. We are grieving what we had. All of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects,” Gilbert said, according to “GMA.”
“For Tim, it’s done. He’s canceled … even if he’s exonerated, he will always be that guy. The last person in the world who would hurt a child,” she said.
Gilbert continued, “And believe me, if I thought for a second that Tim Busfield hurt a child, he’d have a lot more to worry about than prison.”
Busfield and Gilbert, both actors, married in 2013. Busfield is perhaps most well known for his role as Danny Concannon in “The West Wing.”
In February, Busfield was indicted by a grand jury in New Mexico on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office said in a press release at the time.
At the time, Busfield’s lawyer, Larry Stein, said the indictment was “not unexpected.”
“As the saying goes, a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich,” Stein said in a statement in February. “What is deeply concerning is that the District Attorney is choosing to proceed on a case that is fundamentally unsound and cannot be proven at trial.”
“This prosecution appears driven by something other than the facts or the law,” Stein said. “Mr. Busfield will fight these charges at every stage and looks forward to testing the State’s case in open court — where evidence matters — not behind closed doors.”
The indictment came about a month after Busfield turned himself in and was charged following sex abuse accusations made by two children whom Busfield had worked with.
The children reported that Busfield allegedly touched them inappropriately on the set of the Fox series “The Cleaning Lady,” according to Busfield’s arrest warrant.
Busfield has denied the claims, and pleaded not guilty to the charges. His trial is expected to begin next May.
