After remaining silent during much of the fiasco, Phylicia Rashad has broken her silence about the sexual assault allegations against her former TV husband Bill Cosby.
In a recent interview, Rashad expressed concern for what these allegations were doing to the 77-year-old comedian’s legacy.
“Forget these women,” Rashad told Showbiz 411. “What you’re seeing is the destruction of a legacy and I think it’s orchestrated. I don’t know why or who’s doing it, but it’s the legacy. And it’s a legacy that is so important to the culture.”
When asked how she felt about Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson claims of being drugged by Cosby, she responded with a dismissive “Oh please.”
The former Mrs. Huxtable also defended Cosby’s wife Camille, saying that she “is a tough woman, a smart woman” and that “she’s no pushover.” Rashad said she firmly believes that Mrs. Cosby has not been turning the other cheek while her husband violated woman for the past 50 years.
She also implied that someone other than the two dozen women who accused Cosby of rape are trying to keep him off of television. “And it’s worked. All his contracts have been cancelled.”
Due to these allegations, TV Land has taken The Cosby Show off of the air, NBC pulled the plug on a sitcom they were working on with Cosby and Netflix postponed the launch of one of his stand-up specials. Rashad questioned why someone would want to destroy the legacy of not only Cosby but The Cosby Show.
“This show represented America to the outside world. This was the American family. And now you’re seeing it being destroyed. Why?”
Bill Cosby’s wife, daughter and TV daughter Keisha Knight-Pulliam have come to his defense, but Cobsy himself has yet to issue a statement.