Tragic Details About Melissa Gilbert

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Just one year after her divorce from Bo Brinkman, Melissa Gilbert moved on to fellow Hollywood actor Bruce Boxleitner. The two tied the knot in 1995 and welcomed their son Michael together the same year. The two went on to have a 16-year-long marriage, but Gilbert admitted their marriage nearly ended shortly after it began. The former sitcom star wrote in her memoir "Prairie Tale (via Showbiz CheatSheet) that she had an emotional affair with her leading man while starring in "Seduction in a Small Town." Although she didn't name the actor, Dennis McNamara starred as her character's husband in the movie.  

"I'd always developed crushes on my leading men, but this was different and it was fueled by alcohol, which allowed me to pour my heart out," Gilbert wrote in her memoir. "The problem was, I was pouring my heart out to the wrong person. I should've been sharing all of this with my husband, but I was too afraid."  While she and Boxleitner worked past their distance in couple's therapy, their marriage ended in 2011.

"It was like, I lost my mind," Gilbert told Page Six of the split. The former Screen Actors Guild president admitted she bought a Mustang convertible and got fillers and Botox to ease the pain — along with dating a younger French boyfriend. However, the crisis didn't last long. She went on to meet her current husband, actor Timothy Busfield after he spotted her waiting for friends at a bar in 2012. 

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