NEED TO KNOW
- Melissa Gilbert called out Real Housewives of Salt Lake City stars Britani Bateman and Jared Osmond for an “Irish goodbye” after an awkward run-in in New York City
- Gilbert is friends with RHOBH star Kyle Richards, who appeared in Little House on the Prairie alongside Gilbert
- Bateman’s representative later told PEOPLE she meant “no disrespect” to Gilbert and is a “huge fan” of hers
Little House on the Prairie alum Melissa Gilbert says she recently had an awkward run-in with Real Housewives of Salt Lake City stars Britani Bateman and Jared Osmond.
“So the hubby and I had an interesting encounter with a couple of #bravolebrities the other day,” Gilbert, 61, wrote about her interaction with the reality stars in a Wednesday, Dec. 10, Instagram post.
After citing her love for the hit Bravo franchise because of her “sweet friend” Kyle Richards of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, she said she is now “addicted” to Real Housewives of New York, Real Housewives of Orange County and RHOSLC.
“These shows are my guilty pleasure. I find them to be so fun and entertaining,” Gilbert continued, before explaining that the incident happened when she and her husband, Timothy Busfield, were near the Plaza in New York City.
“I said to @timbusfield, ‘we just walked by @britanibateman and Jared Osmond from RHOSLC.’ He grabbed my arm, turned me around and led me back to them. I’m shy. I would never have done it alone,” she continued.
“Tim introduced me saying, ‘This is my wife, Melissa Gilbert from Little House on the Prairie,‘ ” Gilbert recalled. “I laughed and said to them ‘Big fan. Love your show.’ Britani seemed a bit harried, like she wasn’t really in her body as she thanked me for being a fan, and rightly so, Jared had lost his phone and a random woman, currently standing in front of the Plaza had found it.”
The actress then recalled how Osmond “lamented being made to be the villain of the show.”
“I said, I understood. I’d done my time on a reality show years before,” Gilbert, who was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars in 2012, wrote. “Then Britani did an Irish Goodbye..just peaced out completely … she ran to a cab..leaving the three of us standing there while Jared continued to tell us about all the things he said that didn’t make it on the air……then Jared did a version of the same Irish Goodbye to catch up with her and poof, they were gone.”
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She concluded the post, “We then continued on our merry way. I’m pretty sure they had no idea who they were talking to. #theresnobusinesslikeshowbusiness.”
Bateman’s representative later clarified that she had just lost her engagement ring before meeting Gilbert and was rushing back to the venue where she is performing her cabaret act.
“Britani had realized shortly before the introduction that she had lost her engagement ring and panicked,” her rep said in a statement to PEOPLE. “She had received a text message from a friend saying that she thought she left the ring at 54 Below (where she had been rehearsing/performing her cabaret), and she left in a hurry to catch a car back over to the venue to look for it. She meant absolutely no disrespect and hopes to meet with Melissa in the near future. She’s a huge fan of hers.”
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 continued acting on stage, starring in off-Broadway plays like Still, which opened in February 2025.
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