After Eight Years, Melissa Gilbert Says Goodbye to NYC Apartment

Eight years of New York City memories are being boxed up and hauled away. Melissa Gilbert, 62, announced Tuesday, June 22 that she’s leaving her beloved Upper West Side one-bedroom apartment for a full-time move upstate—a decision that arrives amid significant turbulence in her personal life.

The Little House on the Prairie actress didn’t explicitly state why she’s relocating, but her Instagram post carried a wistful undertone. She reflected on the professional wins and late nights out the city had given her, then cryptically wrote,“I promise we will be back, it’s just that right now…..well…..you know.”That vagueness speaks volumes when considered alongside what’s been happening in her household.

Her husband, Timothy Busfield, 69, is fighting criminal sexual contact charges involving a child. Busfield was indicted on four counts by a grand jury in New Mexico on February 6 and has pleaded not guilty. His legal team recently filed a motion to quash the indictment, with his attorney claiming“egregious prosecutorial misconduct”and alleging the government“repressed and suppressed exculpatory evidence.”Throughout this ordeal, Gilbert has publicly stood by him. In an April appearance on Good Morning America, she called his arrest“the most traumatizing experience of our lives”and expressed her belief in his innocence, though she acknowledged the damage is already done:“Even if he’s exonerated, he will always be that guy.”

The move to upstate New York—to what she calls“our wonderful home”—signals a retreat from the public eye and the relentless New York media landscape. In her farewell, Gilbert expressed genuine love for the city itself: the walking, the subway rides, the bodega owners and neighbors she’ll miss. She promised it isn’t forever. But for now, stepping back into privacy feels like the only path forward for a couple whose life, as Gilbert put it, has fundamentally changed. The apartment that housed eight years of theater work and city adventures now represents a before that’s no longer available to them.