NEED TO KNOW
- Melissa Gilbert starred on Little House on the Prairie for almost a decade
- After the show ended in 1983, she went on to act primarily in made-for-TV movies before moving out of Los Angeles in 2013
- She returned to acting in 2025 and made a guest appearance on the Hallmark series When Calls the Heart
It’s been over 40 years since Melissa Gilbert left her Little House on the Prairie.
The former child star rose to fame for her role as Laura Ingalls Wilder in the beloved series, which followed a late 1800s family as they built a new life in the American Midwest. After the final episode aired in 1983, Gilbert continued to act and appeared in over 40 made-for-TV movies.
She returned to her roots in 2008, playing Caroline “Ma” Wilder in the live musical adaptation of Little House on the Prairie.
The actress left Los Angeles in 2013 and moved to Michigan for five years, later telling PEOPLE that she felt she had to escape Hollywood “in order to age.”
“When you live in Los Angeles, it’s like living at the mall when you work at the mall,” she said in the September 2024 interview. “It puts a lot of pressure on staying thin and staying young and really it makes it hard to feel comfortable in one’s own skin, because [of] the aging process.”
She continued, “I had to get out of there [L.A.], because it felt like I was not being authentically myself. In the five years that I was in Michigan, all of that stopped. … I stopped everything and just focused on being as physically and emotionally healthy as I could. And I think that shows, ‘Yes, I’m aging, but it’s not a curse — it’s a blessing.’ ”
As Gilbert’s on-screen appearances became fewer and farther between, she started pursuing other ventures off-screen. She’s authored four books and ran for Congress in Michigan’s 8th district in 2016 but had to withdraw from the race due to a spinal injury. In 2022, she launched the lifestyle brand Modern Prairie for older women.
So, where is Melissa Gilbert now? Here’s everything to know about the Little House on the Prairie star’s life after the show.
Why did Melissa Gilbert leave Hollywood?
Gilbert left Los Angeles in 2013 — the same year she married actor Timothy Busfield — to escape “all of the pressures” that come with aging in Hollywood.
She told PEOPLE that after they relocated to Michigan, she embraced a more natural lifestyle: she stopped getting injectables, let her hair go gray and had her breast implants removed.
In 2018, the couple relocated to New York City and later purchased a home upstate, which they affectionately called “the cabbage,” a mix of “cabin” and “cottage,” per The New York Times. Gilbert and Busfield renovated the property themselves, where they grow vegetables and raise chickens.
What health condition does Melissa Gilbert have?
In 2024, Gilbert revealed she had been diagnosed with misophonia, a neurological condition where certain sounds or visual cues trigger intense emotional and physical reactions, such as anger or anxiety.
For years, she didn’t know her responses were linked to a medical issue, which left her feeling “horribly guilty.”
“I sobbed when I found out that it had a name and I wasn’t just a bad person,” she told PEOPLE in August 2024. “I really just thought that I was rude. And I felt really bad. And guilty, which is an enormous component of misophonia, the guilt that you feel for these feelings of fight or flight. It’s a really isolating disorder.”
Gilbert said menopause worsened her symptoms, prompting her to undergo 16 weeks of intensive cognitive behavioral therapy. While she admits the condition will “never go away,” she now has tools to help her feel less triggered and more in control.
What does Melissa Gilbert do now?
After a seven-year hiatus from the small screen, Gilbert made a guest appearance on Hallmark’s long-running frontier series When Calls the Heart in 2025. She has also continued to act on stage, starring in off-Broadway plays like Still, which opened in February 2025.
In addition to acting, Gilbert spearheaded Modern Prairie, a women’s lifestyle brand that she co-founded with Nicole Haase, a former executive at Williams Sonoma, in 2022. She told PEOPLE in 2024 that the brand caters to the “modern seasoned woman” who has gone through “huge transitions.”
“We are all going through incredible things, whether they’re physiological, hormonal changes happening, we’re losing our spouses and partners or have children leaving the nest,” she said. “I think the strength that we possess having just survived this long is remarkable.”
Where is Melissa Gilbert now?
As of 2025, Gilbert is living in New York with her husband. She has two sons — Dakota Brinkman and Michael Boxleitner — from her previous marriages to director Bo Brinkman and actor Bruce Boxleitner, and is a stepmother to five more children, making her a grandmother of eight.
Now, when taking on roles, Gilbert keeps her grandchildren at the forefront, choosing projects that’ll get her closer to where they live.
“Anything that takes me to a location that gets me near one of my kids’ homes is good for me,” she told PEOPLE in February 2025.
She added, “I don’t feel any added responsibility in choosing roles because I have grandchildren. I think I’m just more determined to continue to bring stories to light that affect the way people interact with one another.”
The actress told PEOPLE in September 2024 that she feels “so much stronger” and more comfortable in her own skin at her current age than at any other.
“I feel like I’ve really earned the right to my opinions and I have something to say,” Gilbert remarked. “Just because you’re a certain age, it doesn’t mean that life is over. Life is not over until it’s over. So make the most of it while you can.”
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