To millions, she’ll always be Laura Ingalls Wilder from Little House on the Prairie — but to her two sons, Melissa Gilbert is just “Mom.”
Gilbert first became a mom in May 1989, welcoming son Dakota Brinkman with her first husband, director Bo Brinkman. After their split, she married fellow actor Bruce Boxleitner and welcomed son Michael Boxleitner — named after her late Little House on the Prairie costar Michael Landon — in October 1995.
Gilbert’s family grew again after she married her third husband, actor Timothy Busfield, in 2013 and became a stepmother to his children. In 2016, she became a grandma for the first time when her son Dakota and his wife, Marissa, welcomed their daughter, Ripley.
Busfield is currently facing an arrest warrant issued on Jan. 9 in connection with allegations of child sex abuse. The alleged incident reportedly occurred on the set of The Cleaning Lady, where Busfield served as a director.
Here’s everything to know about Melissa Gilbert’s children: Dakota and Michael.
Gilbert and her first husband, Brinkman, welcomed their son, Dakota Paul Brinkman, on May 1, 1989.
In honor of his birthday in 2020, Gilbert, who has since deleted her Instagram, posted photos of Dakota from over the years.
“He’s my first born. The first one to eternally occupy my heart,” she captioned the snaps. “I could not be more proud of the man he is. He is compassionate, funny, loving, kind and fiercely loyal. Happy Birthday Dakota Paul Brinkman! I love you 3000. xoxo, Mama.”
While Dakota grew up away from the spotlight, he landed minor roles in a few lesser-known projects up until 2016, according to his IMDb. After that, he worked as a lead writer for the gaming company Nights at the Game Table from 2019 to 2020, per his LinkedIn.
Since then, Dakota has kept a low profile, though his mom has shared glimpses of his life on social media. When he proposed to his now-wife, Marissa, on Christmas Day in 2016, Gilbert celebrated the special milestone with a picture of the engagement ring.
“All I wanted for Christmas was another daughter-in-law and she said yes!! Congratulations @martobes and my first born son Dakota!” the actress wrote on Instagram.
Dakota and Marissa later welcomed their daughter, Ripley, on June 8, 2021.
About a week after her birth, Gilbert began sharing baby photos of her granddaughter online, and she jokingly warned followers that the trend would continue for a while.
“My feed is going to get boring if you’re not into babies,” Gilbert captioned pictures of Ripley on Instagram. “I’m a very proud Nana!!”
Gilbert and her second husband, Boxleitner, welcomed their son Michael Boxleitner on Oct. 6, 1995.
The couple named Michael after Gilbert’s on-screen dad, Michael Landon, whom the actress was close to while they were filming Little House.
Reflecting on her motherhood journey in August 2016, Gilbert shared details of Michael’s birth story, which involved complications.
“We all have moments in our lives that are magical, perfect, inevitable. The moments I met each of my children face to face stand out as those moments. This is the moment I met @michaelgarrett95,” she wrote on Instagram.
Gilbert revealed that she gave birth to him at 28 weeks, and although she was “afraid” for him because he couldn’t breathe on his own and had to spend time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), she knew he would pull through.
“He was only 3 lbs and had the courage of a lion,” she added. “He’ll be 21 soon but he will always, always be my Peeker McSqueek.”
Speaking to PEOPLE in August 2024, Gilbert opened up about her struggle with misophonia — a disorder that makes people sensitive to sounds, like chewing or finger tapping — and how it affected her kids, who had to learn to adjust.
“I had a hand signal that I would give, making my hand into a puppet and I’d make it look like it was chewing and then I’d snap it shut — like shut your mouth!” she recalled. “My poor kids spent their whole childhoods growing up with me doing this. They weren’t allowed to have gum.”
However, once she was diagnosed, she underwent several months of treatment that helped her cope with the condition and to ease tensions at home.
Like his mom, Michael is an actor who has appeared in several theatrical productions. In addition, he’s appeared in an episode of the CBS procedural drama FBI: Most Wanted.
