Another One Bites the Dust: Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner Split After 16 Years Together

Former Little House on the Prairie star is divorcing longtime hubby, more than eight months after separating

UPDATE: Melissa Gilbert filed for divorce Monday, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason and asking for joint custody of their 15-year-old son. She noted that their separation occurred Jan. 5, four days after their 16th wedding anniversary. The duo didn't announce they had split up until March.
__________________________

So who gets the little house on the prairie? Guess we'll have to wait until the division of property to find out.

One of Hollywood's seemingly most steady couples, Melissa Gilbert and Bruce Boxleitner, has fallen, announced today that they have separated after 16 years.

"We have loved each other for a very long time and we share four incredible sons together," the 46-year-old Gilbert, a former Screen Actors Guild president, said in a statement to E! News. "On behalf of our family we ask to be allowed our privacy during this very difficult time."

They have just one son together, 15-year-old Michael named, just as you suspect, after Gilbert's Little House on the Prairie costar Michael Landon. She also has a 21-year-old son from a previous marriage, while the 60-year-old Boxleitner also has two sons, ages 30 and 25, from his prior trip down the aisle.

The couple-no-more tied the knot back in 1995. There's no word yet on what caused the split or even when they separated, but they made the rounds together as recently as December, when both turned up at the Hollywood premiere of Tron: Legacy, in which he starred.

(Originally published March 1, 2011, at 12 p.m. PT)