Phylicia Rashad on Bill Cosby’s rape accusers: ‘Forget these women’

BILL Cosby’s on-screen wife, Phylicia Rashad, has defended the comedian against rape allegations saying they are part of ‘orchestrated plan’ to destroy him.

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BILL Cosby’s on-screen wife, Phylicia Rashad, has come out to defend the comedian against rape allegations saying they are ‘orchestrated plan’ to destroy him.

Rashad told Showbiz411 that she loved her former co-star and did not believe the rape allegations that have been levelled at Cosby by at least 23 women.

Cosby spin-off ... Madeline Kahn, actor Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad in Cosby. Picture: Supplied.

Rashad, 66, played Clair Huxtable in the long-running Cosby Show for which she won an Emmy Award.

“Forget these women,” Rashad said. “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.

“Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV,” she said. “And it’s worked. All his contracts have been cancelled.”

Cast ... Tempestt Bledsoe, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Phylicia Rashad, (sitting l-r) Lisa Bonet, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Bill Cosby and Sabrina LeBeauf. Picture: Supplied.

Rashad also came to the defence of Camille Cosby, who some have criticised for seemingly standing by knowing what her husband was allegedly doing.

“This is a tough woman, a smart woman,” she said. “She’s no pushover.”

Cosby’s on-screen daughter, Keisha Knight Pulliam, who played his youngest child Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show, also defended him this week.

“I wasn’t there, no one was there expect for the two people to know exactly what happened,” she said. “All I can speak to is the man that I know and I love.”

“It’s very much been played out in the court of public opinion,” she said. “We’re still in America where ultimately you’re innocent until proven guilty.”

“I wasn’t there. That just wasn’t the man I know, so I can’t speak to it,” she said.

Rashad starred alongside Cosby for eight years on The Cosby Show and rejoined him for a spin-off show, Cosby, playing Ruth Lucas from 1996 to 2000.