Bill Cosby has support of ‘both wives’ heading into trial
Both of Bill Cosby’s wives are standing by their man.
The comedian’s real wife of more than 50 years, Camille, and his TV wife, Phylicia Rashad, are both expected to attend his sexual-assault trial in Philadelphia, which begins Monday.
“Phylicia has never wavered in her support of Bill and she’s said she’ll be available for whatever he might need, whenever he might need it,” a source close to the actress said.
Rashad, 68, played Claire Huxtable in the groundbreaking 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show,” a series loosely based on Bill and Camille’s life. From 1996 to 2000, Rashad again starred as Cosby’s fictional wife, Ruth Lucas, in “Cosby.”
Although she’s kept mostly quiet about the allegations by nearly 60 women that Cosby drugged and assaulted them, Rashad said in a 2015 interview that she believed her friend was the victim of a scheme to end his career.
“I think it’s orchestrated, I don’t know why or who’s doing it, but it’s the legacy,” she said. “And, it’s a legacy that is so important to the culture. Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV, and it’s worked.”
Camille, 73, has also shunned the spotlight since the allegations broke, but has been a private pillar of strength.
“Never, not one time did she abandon him,” a family source said.
The Cosby camp has been reaching out to his former TV family to support “America’s Dad” in the courtroom gallery. The 79-year-old comedian has become increasingly isolated and paranoid, shunned by Hollywood heavyweights and afraid that someone will poison his food or drink, sources told The Post last week.
His “Cosby Show” co-stars appears to be divided in their support. Keshia Knight-Pulliam, who played his daughter Rudy, and Malcolm Jamal Warner, who played son Theo, are expected to attend the trial.
But his other TV daughters, Tempestt Bledsoe, who played Vanessa, Sabrina Le Beauf, who played Sondra, and Lisa Bonet, who played Denise, have all been notably silent.
Cosby has said he will not testify at the trial, where he stands accused of three counts of aggravated sexual assault against former Temple University athlete Andrea Constand. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Constand, 44, is expected to tell the jury that during a 2004 visit to Cosby’s home near Philadelphia, he gave her pills that left her semi-conscious and unable to move before touching her and forcibly putting her hand on his penis. She alleges that after she regained consciousness, she found her clothes strewn about and realized she had been violated.
Cosby’s lawyers will counter that the pair had been in a consensual relationship. They met at Temple University, where Constand was the director of the women’s basketball team and Cosby, a Temple graduate, was a booster and board trustee.
Constand admitted to police that Cosby had made sexual advances before the alleged attack, yet she continued to see him. She told investigators that, after the alleged incident, she gave Cosby a sweater as a present.
Katherine Hart, a former detective for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, testified at a preliminary hearing that, after the incident, Constand took her family to see one of Cosby’s standup shows.
Unlike the other accusers, Constand’s case has made it to court because on Dec. 30, 2015, just hours before the statute of limitations was to expire, District Attorney Richard Steele filed felony charges against Cosby.
A Cosby camp source maintained the claims are meritless.
“Look, it doesn’t make sense,” the source said. “You’re telling me that he drugged her just for a hand job? No, that didn’t happen. What happened was that she said she wasn’t feeling well, he offered her some Benadryl … and that was it,” the source said.
Cosby’s lawyers will argue that Constand had been seeing Cosby, seeking his help to get her a broadcasting gig with NBC for the 2004 Summer Olympics, and when the job didn’t happened, began to “stew.”
