NEED TO KNOW

• Melissa Gilbert shared a heartfelt Instagram post celebrating her renewed friendship with costar Melissa Sue Anderson

• The two actresses, who played sisters on Little House on the Prairie, recently reconciled after years of a strained relationship

• Gilbert praised Anderson’s inner and outer beauty and reflected on their unique bond from growing up on set together

Melissa Gilbert is forever sisters with Little House on the Prairie costar Melissa Sue Anderson.

In an Instagram post on July 23, Gilbert posted a screenshot of an article headline that read “The Original Mary Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie Is Still Stunning Today.”

“I get a lot of @google alerts, so I read a lot of headlines. Especially lately. Some are good. Some are dumb. Some are cruel. Some are lies. Some are true,” she began. Gilbert was seemingly referencing husband Timothy Busfield’s child sex abuse allegations. In February, Busfield was indicted by a grand jury in New Mexico on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

However, Gilbert noted that the headline she shared about Anderson “is the absolute truth.”

“Melissa is a true beauty. But it’s not just the outside of her, it’s what’s inside that makes her shine even more,” Gilbert, 62, wrote. “She has been such a good and true confidante. Checking in, making sure I’m ok. I’m so glad that we have had the chance to reconnect and become real friends.”

Gilbert and Anderson, 63, played sisters Laura and Mary Ingalls, respectively, on the iconic show, which ran from 1974 to 1983.

“As I’ve told her, we will forever be sisters. How could we not be? We hold each other’s childhoods in our hearts,” Gilbert wrote, before noting that “no one else had the experiences we shared when we were ‘knee high to a grasshopper.’ “

“Peppermint sticks, tin cups, Johnny Johnson and Jasper the raccoon. Ma and Pa and Mr. Edwards. That horrible teacher who smacked me with the ruler. Rescuing puppies from the lake. Sitting across from each other in our school room with Mrs. Miniear, our set teacher,” Gilbert recalled of her memories filming with Anderson.

Gilbert joined the show at age 10, while Anderson was 11.

“Truth be told, I really looked up to her. She was so graceful and pretty and I was so buck-toothed and goofy. And now here we are. All this life experience under our belts. Absolute contemporaries. Fully able to appreciate our forever connection,” she continued. “Sending so much love to my ‘forever sister’ today.”

The two women both alluded to having a distant off-screen dynamic in the years after the show, as Gilbert’s 2009 book, A Prairie Tale, revealed that the on-screen sisters had a complex dynamic while filming, with Gilbert saying that Anderson could be “tough” on her.

However, they recently reconciled.

In December 2025, Gilbert shared an Instagram photo of her and Anderson, explaining that they put “the past” behind them through “long, healing talks,” “lots of reminiscing,” “lots of catching up,” “lots of laughter and a few tears.”

“I’m so happy to have Melissa Anderson back in my life. We share such an important history that no one else on earth truly understands,” Gilbert wrote. “Just us Ingalls girls. The best part is, the past is now just that and we can move forward as the sisters/friends we always wanted to be. What a wonderful Christmas gift.”

In addition to Gilbert and Anderson, Little House on the Prairie starred Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Alison Arngrim, Matthew Labyorteaux and Dean Butler, to name a few.