Melissa Gilbert Recalls Age Gap With ‘Little House On The Prairie’ Husband

Melissa Gilbert reflected on her “Little House on the Prairie” past after Megyn Kelly’s comments about Jeffrey Epstein sparked backlash.

The beloved actress, while sharing photos of herself at 15, called attention to being a “child” expected to film romantic scenes with an older co-star.

Melissa Gilbert’s activism also extends to New York, where she accused a politician of blocking Ryder’s Law, a bill to phase out Central Park horse-drawn carriages.

In a heartfelt Instagram post shared on Saturday, Gilbert revisited her “Little House on the Prairie” past after Megyn Kelly’s recent remarks about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sparked fury online.

The actress, now 61, said Kelly’s commentary prompted her to reflect on her own experience as a teenager working opposite a significantly older co-star, Dean Butler, the actor who played her teenage love interest on the classic NBC series.

Gilbert shared photos of herself at age 15, explaining that the #iWasFifteen trend by women led her to search for images from that time.

“And this is some of what I found…and now, at this age, at this time, I am actually nauseated,” she said about images of her younger self kissing her co-star.

In her lengthy post, Gilbert noted that what she saw while looking back at her past role was “a child” expected to “fall in love” and kiss an adult man on television.

Viewed with today’s awareness, Gilbert said the situation feels “shocking.”

“I have no words other than to say, ‘I WAS A CHILD.’ ‘I WAS FIFTEEN,'” she stressed. “And I was the good news.”

However, Gilbert acknowledged that she was fortunate to have a protective mother and the support of Michael Landon, who played her father on the show.

“Can you imagine if I hadn’t had them all?” she wrote. “I am so fortunate (Sort of). Many other young women aren’t.”

She ended her message with a pointed note directed at Kelly: “@megynkelly, you need to be careful with your words.”

The controversy began after Kelly, on her SiriusXM program, called Epstein “an actual pedophile” but argued the severity of abuse differs when victims are teenagers.

“We have yet to see anybody come forward and say, ‘I was 10, I was under 14,’ when I first came within his purview,” she said on her SiriusXM program per Newsweek. “There’s a difference between a 10-year-old and a 5-year-old… It’s sick. The whole thing is disgusting.”

Her remarks sparked immediate outrage and helped fuel the #iWasFifteen movement.

In response, thousands of women, Gilbert among them, shared photos of themselves at age 15 to highlight just how young, vulnerable, and unmistakably childlike they were at the time.

Epstein’s crimes have been well documented. In 2019, a decade after pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and registering as a sex offender, he was arrested on federal child sex-trafficking charges.

Federal prosecutors said some of his alleged victims were “as young as 14.” A month later, while awaiting trial, he was found dead in his jail cell in what was ruled an apparent suicide.

This isn’t the first time Gilbert has pushed back against Kelly. In January, after Kelly blasted the upcoming “Little House on the Prairie” Netflix reboot on X.

The journalist warned at the time, “@Netflix if you wokeify ‘Little House on the Prairie’ I will make it my singular mission to absolutely ruin your project.”

Gilbert publicly countered her on Threads, urging the political commentator to revisit the original series, writing, “Ummm… watch the original again. TV doesn’t get much more ‘woke’ than we did.”

She pointed out that the show tackled racism, addiction, misogyny, antisemitism, spousal abuse, rape, and other heavy social issues long before “woke” became a buzzword.

“Thank you very much,” Gilbert added.

Gilbert’s latest criticism of Kelly also follows a separate public battle with New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Taking to Instagram, the “Thicker than Water” actress posted a pointed video accusing Adams of “single-handedly blocking” Ryder’s Law, a proposed measure that would phase out horse-drawn carriages in Central Park next year, even preventing a hearing on it, calling the move “cruel, corrupt, and undemocratic.”

“The people of New York have a right to a hearing,” the 61-year-old actress said, per The Blast, noting that “We already know that a super-majority of New Yorkers support Ryder’s Law, as does the Central Park Conservancy. Meanwhile, horses continue to collapse and drop dead. They’re even running wild and injuring people in the park.”

Directly addressing the council speaker, Gilbert demanded action: “Speaker Adams, this insanity must stop. As a resident of New York, I demand you schedule a hearing immediately so that the people can vote on Ryder’s Law.”