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Little House on the PrairiealumMelissa Gilbertis the latest star to condemn Megyn Kelly's incendiary comments about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On a recent edition ofThe Megyn Kelly Show, the conservative political commentator related thatsome people believe Epstein "was not a pedophile,"because "he was into the barely legal type," namely, 15-year-old girls.
"There's a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old, you know?" the former Fox News host argued. "It's just whatever. It's sick."
Kelly's remarks sparked a wave of backlash, including the hashtag trend #iWasFifteen, in which women shared photos of themselves at 15 to put their youth into perspective. Some participants also recounted their own teenage experience of dealing with sexual abuse. After seeing a few posts on the subject, Gilbert decided to address Kelly's comments in a SaturdayInstagrampost.
"I debated posting this but, I feel compelled to share. After seeing many women's posts with the hashtags #iwasfifteen #imfifteen #iwasachild, I decided to Google search myself at that age and see what came up," Gilbert shared "And this is some of what I found."
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Gilbert, who began herLittle Houserole at just 10 years old, then shared several photos of herself at 15 — including a few that saw her embracing and kissing her costar Dean Butler, who played her love interest on the show. Eight years older than her, Butler was 23 when Gilbert was 15.
"I am actually nauseated," Gilbert wrote. "The girl on vacation in Hawaii with her family, is the same girl who was expected to 'fall in love with' and kiss a man on film who was several years older than she was. Through the lens of today, this is shocking. I have no words other than to say 'I WAS A CHILD. I WAS FIFTEEN.'"
She continued, "And I was the good news. Thank God my mom and Michael [Landon] and so many others were there to make sure I was safe. Can you imagine if I hadn't had them all? I am so fortunate (Sort of). Many other young women aren't."
She concluded by addressing Kelly directly, writing, "You need to be careful with your words."
Entertainment Weeklyhas reached out to Kelly for comment.
Epstein, who was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008, was charged with sex trafficking minors and conspiracy to sex traffic minors in New York in 2019. He died by apparent suicide in his jail cell ahead of his trial.
The past few days have seen the discourse surrounding Epstein revived, after a collection of emails to and from the disgraced financier were released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, renewing interest in the relationship between the late sex offender and current President Donald Trump.
This is not the first time Gilbert hasclapped back at Kelly. Earlier this year, the conservative commentator got riled up about the news thatNetflix would be rebootingLittle House on the Prairie.She tagged the streamer in a post captioned, "If youwokeifyLittle House on the PrairieI will make it my singular mission to absolutely ruin your project."
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Gilbert, who starred in the family drama for its entire run, from 1974 to 1983, responded with her own social media post, writing, "Ummm...watch the original again. TV doesn't get too much more 'woke' than we did. We tackled: racism, addiction, nativism, antisemitism, misogyny, rape, spousal abuse and every other 'woke' topic you can think of."
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As for the kiss between Butler and Gilbert, which occurred during the show's sixth season, it was recently addressed during theLittle House on the Prairie50th Anniversary Cast Reunion and Festival in 2024.
Butler toldPEOPLE, "I've often said to Melissa, 'I wish we could have been a little closer in age when we were doing this.' But that's not the way it really happened."
He said of their characters, "Laura was 10 years younger than Almanzo. But from the perspective of playing it, I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could have [had] … a little more common ground, so we would've been able to play the loving side of this in perhaps a little bit more interesting way."
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