Melissa Gilbert announced her exit from When Calls the Heart ahead of season 14 amid her husband Timothy Busfield’s child sex abuse scandal.
“Many people have asked if I will be returning to When Calls the Heart this coming season,” the actress, 62, wrote in a statement shared via Instagram on Thursday, July 16. “The answer to that is no, I am not.”
Gilbert claimed that the reason for her departure was due to “budget issues” but she wishes her former costars nothing but the best.
“I wish all my sweet friends in Hope Valley a wonderful and successful season 14,” she added.
She also noted that she was “eternally grateful” to “bring Georgie McGill to life” for the past two seasons.
“It was a lovely couple of seasons but it’s time to say farewell,” she wrote in the caption. “When one door closes, another one opens. Looking forward to whatever comes next. #thatsshowbiz #onwardandupward.”
Gilbert joined the Hallmark series for season 12, which aired in 2025. She played Georgie who was a former Mountie forensic investigator who had a romantic past with Jack Wagner’s character, Bill Avery.
Fans took to the comments section to express their disappointment that Gilbert will not be back next season.
“Hopefully they will bring you back!!! You were the perfect addition to the cast,” one user wrote while another replied, “Oh no! Poor Bill won’t get his happily ever after! 😢.”
Gilbert’s departure from When Calls the Heart comes amid Busfield’s ongoing child sex abuse case. Earlier this year, Busfield, 69, was indicted on child sex abuse charges by a grand jury in New Mexico. The actor was indicted on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office said in a press release obtained by Us Weekly in February.
Busfield has pleaded not guilty to the charges and recently filed a motion to quash the grand jury indictment.
“Timothy Busfield is innocent. This motion describes egregious prosecutorial misconduct during grand jury proceedings, thereby preventing the jurors from hearing testimony, witnesses and evidence even after repeated requests by the grand jury itself,” Busfield’s civil attorney Stanton “Larry” Stein claimed in a statement to Us in June. “The government repressed and suppressed exculpatory evidence, misstated the law and failed in the most basic due process afforded any person under either Constitutional or State laws designed to protect actual innocence from abuse of government power.”
Gilbert has remained by Busfield’s side amid the allegations.
“Our life as we knew it is done,” the Little House on the Prairie alum said during an April appearance on Good Morning America. “We are grieving what we had — all of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects. For Tim, it’s done. He’s canceled. Even if he’s exonerated, he will always be that guy. [He’s] the last person in the world who would hurt a child.”
