Joseph C. Phillips, who played Bill Cosby’s son-in-law on The Cosby Show, has come forward to discuss his feelings towards the embattled comedian in a new post, titled “Of Course Bill Cosby Is Guilty.”
In the post, which was published on July 13, Phillips speaks candidly about how he idolized Cosby long before the two ever worked together in show business.
“He was my boyhood idol. His influence on my life has been profound. I owe much of who I am to Bill Cosby, so the idea of love seems to fall short of exactly how I feel,” he wrote.
Phillips continued:
The Cos was a ladies man, but also good father and husband – devoted to his wife and children. Bill was educated; he collected art and was fluent in jazz. After my father, Bill Cosby was the man I aspired to be.
Few get an opportunity to meet their idol, much less work with them. I was blessed in that regard, and even more blessed that I found my idol as clever, kind and brilliant as I had imagined.
Cosby has been accused of sexual misconduct now by more than two dozen women, and court documents from 2005 recently revealed the comedian confessed to giving women Quaaludes for sex.
Phillips went to discuss what it was like when he signed on to the iconic show, saying it was no secret Cosby was involved with women other than his wife.
“Bill sleeping around was a fact that, like, the air, seemed to just be,” said Phillips. “You didn’t have to see it or hear it to know that it existed…There was also the seeming unending parade of pretty young women that streamed through the studio.”
There was one moment in particular that Phillips claims “shook” him amid the height of the allegations against Cosby, which occurred after he ran into a female friend who also spent a significant amount of time around the comedian and viewed him as a mentor.
“Back in the day,” I started. “I remember that you knew Bill – that he was like your mentor or something. Did he ever…” Before I finished the sentence, she began to cry,” he explained.
“We spent the next two hours sitting on a bench talking. Through tears, she told me her story. She cursed him for violating both her trust and her body. She cursed herself for not being smarter, and for degrading herself in the pursuit of success. I listened patiently. As she began to run out of steam, she turned to me. ‘Do you believe me?'”
The way Phillips thought of Cosby forever changed in that moment, he says, and in closing offered one last plea to the comedian he once held on a pedestal.
“The good Bill has done over the years is real and enduring,” he wrote. “I am not prepared to simply dismiss his brilliance, his wisdom, or his legacy… It is with all of the love I still have for him and the reference of one who has idolized him for a lifetime that I offer this plea. Bill, you have a family who loves you, a wife who is devoted to you; you have more money than you can spend. Please, go live a quiet country life. Allow those of us who love you to preserve just a bit of our enchantment.”