When Melissa Gilbert first crossed paths with Timothy Busfield outside a Los Angeles bar in 2012, the connection was instant and undeniable. Though they had met before, this particular encounter left them both profoundly struck by each other.
“It’s a cliché, but it was like being hit by lightning,” she tells PEOPLE, recalling her first thoughts, “It just felt right and inevitable. The morning after, I woke up thinking, ‘I’m going to marry him,’ then immediately questioned my sanity.”
Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield instantly connected after meeting outside a Los Angeles bar in 2012
“Then I figured, ‘Why not start with brunch?’ I grabbed my phone to text him, and at the exact moment, he texted me asking the same thing,” she adds. “That’s when I realized maybe I wasn’t so crazy, and it just made sense.” They met for brunch, and from then on, everything clicked.
By December 2012, the couple was engaged and married in April 2013 in an intimate ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch, Santa Barbara. Gilbert wore a striking red strapless wedding gown. After their marriage, the couple relocated to New York City in 2018, eventually settling in upstate New York. Gilbert also co-founded a lifestyle brand, Modern Prairie, with Nicole Haase, a former Williams Sonoma executive.
Both Gilbert and Busfield had been divorced twice and had children from previous marriages. Gilbert calls their marriage the “easiest relationship” she’s experienced, grounded in mutual respect and shared values. Gilbert attributes their deep connection to Busfield’s sense of humor, his immense talent, and the admiration they have for each other’s pasts and abilities.
