Phylicia Rashad Says She Was Misquoted About Bill Cosby

Phylicia Rashad, right, pictured with her sister Debbie Allen.

On Wednesday, we told you about Phylicia Rashad’s controversial comments about Bill Cosby after Roger Friedman of Showbiz 411 published quotes from Rashad that didn’t exactly come off as sympathetic to the dozens of women who have publicly accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, rape or molestation. Case in point: One of her quotes was “Forget these women.” Well, within hours of those initial reports, Rashad said she was misquoted.

Rashad gave an interview to ABC’s Linsey Davis on Wednesday. Here’s part of what she had to say:

That is a misquote, and that is not what I said. What I said is this is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy… I am a woman. I would never say such a thing.

Still, she couldn’t let the interview wrap without remaining steadfast in her defense of Cosby. “What has happened is declaration in the media of guilt without proof,” she told Davis.

Later, Friedman ran a clarification titled, “Clearing up What Phylicia Rashad Said, Meant and How I Wrote It”:

Folks, I have been out of pocket all day on a personal matter. Let me clear something. I did not misquote Phylicia Rashad. But she didn’t mean for it to be taken the way it was, and I should have punctuated. There was NEVER the meaning in ‘Forget those women’ that she was saying to actually forget or dismiss then. She meant, ‘those women aside’– as in, she’s not talking about that, she’s talking about Cosby’s legacy being destroyed. It was conversational. Somehow this got twisted. I am really sorry if the way I presented it made it seem like either one of us was forgetting anyone. I’ve been at a hospice on and off for 10 says with a family friend of 40 years. So really, let’s all calm down. What Phylicia was doing was defending her friend and his legacy. That’s what she said, that’s what I wrote, I’m sorry if it caused her grief. And no one asked me to write this. I’m just saying it because I like and respect her.

PS I am also taking out the “Forget those women” because it was misunderstood, and not for any other reason.

Below, the ABC News interview: