Former Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet, who played Denise Huxtable on the legendary series and its popular spinoff, A Different World, has addressed for the first time the series of sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby. The 80-year-old comedian has been the target of horrifying sexual assault and misconduct accusations from at least 50 different women. Some have taken Cosby to court but so far he remains free, although due in court again in April to face charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand in 2004.
In an interview with Net-a-Porter, Bonet admits that the series of revelations of Cosby’s behavior have not “tainted” her memory of the years when she starred on the show, saying that they remain “exactly as [she] remembers it.” However, she did have some sense of what her co-star could be capable of.
“There was no knowledge on my part about his specific actions, but… There was just energy,” she said. “And that type of sinister, shadow energy cannot be concealed.”
Bonet went on to say that she “always” sensed a “darkness” with her TV-dad. But she maintains she does not know anything else or have any personal stories to tell of her time with Cosby. “If I had anything more to reveal then it would have happened a long time ago. That’s my nature. The truth will set you free,” Bonet said.
Bonet landed her role as Denise when she was just 16 years old, and she and Cosby tended to disagree on how she used her newfound fame. She posed topless in Interview magazine, and had a nude sex scene in Angel Heart, which Cosby openly disapproved of. Bonet continues to take the high road when it comes to speaking about Cosby today.
“I don’t need to say, ‘I told you so,'” Bonet says. “I just leave all that to karma and justice and what will be.”
Bonet’s words echo those of her daughter, Zoe Kravitz, who spoke to The Guardian in 2015 about why her mother hadn’t said anything about the scandal when it first erupted. “She hasn’t, she really hasn’t [talked],” Kravitz said. “She’d plead the fifth, even to me. I think she’s just staying out of it. She’s just as disgusted and concerned as everyone else is, but I don’t think she has any insight. It’s news to her as well.”
Cosby has been having legal troubles for years now. Many of the dozens of accusations against him had passed the statute of limitations, but Andrea Constand, who accused Cosby of giving her Quaaludes and then initiating sexual constant without consent, was able to take Cosby to court. The case was ruled a mistrial in June of 2017, and the case was immediately retried. The pretrial was this week, and the trial is set to take place in April.
