0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains some strong language
0:00:04 > 0:00:07and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:07 > 0:00:08Nicole, good evening.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11The first of four days of pre-trial motion hearings.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14The prosecution wants to call about a dozen women at trial.
0:00:14 > 0:00:19They also allege Cosby drugged and assaulted them.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24They will say that Bill Cosby has used his fame and fortune to, quote, "cover up his crimes".
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Bill Cosby, one of the greatest
0:00:30 > 0:00:33American entertainers of the last 50 years,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36is due to stand trial accused of sexual assault.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Come here, I want to take a picture.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Cosby is an American icon,
0:00:42 > 0:00:44a brilliant comedian,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47who broke down racial barriers on American television...
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Now, all of you, get out!
0:00:49 > 0:00:54..and with The Cosby Show, a sitcom about a black middle-class family,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57created one of the most successful TV shows of all time.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Yes!
0:01:00 > 0:01:01He was a great role model.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04A great father, a great husband.
0:01:04 > 0:01:05A great entertainer.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10He was revered, even.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16People loved him. He was America's dad.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Cosby was God.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Cosby is standing trial for a single case of sexual assault,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30but dozens of other women have claimed he attacked them, too.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35His alleged victims say he is a serial rapist,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37who hid behind a brilliant public persona.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44What happened to me, he drugged me, raped me,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47and then he threatened serious consequences to my life.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52For half a century, Bill Cosby's reputation has remained untarnished.
0:01:54 > 0:01:55Until now.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59It's misogyny, it's power,
0:01:59 > 0:02:04it's the great wealth machine of a Hollywood that keeps people silent.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29This is Hollywood, the most famous, most glamorous place in the world.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33It's a place of dreams, hopes and riches.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35Let's go to Hollywood backstage,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38and see this unique and fascinating place called Hollywood.
0:02:42 > 0:02:47All of these comedians used to play the Playboy Club circuit,
0:02:47 > 0:02:50so all of us Bunnies kind of knew them as buddies.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53They were sort of the casual... We all would go after work
0:02:53 > 0:02:58and eat breakfast or something, you know, on the Strip.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01And so my girlfriend said, "Hey, I know Bill Cosby.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04"I can hook you up, and maybe you can get an audition."
0:03:07 > 0:03:10Aspiring actor Victoria Valentino
0:03:10 > 0:03:14was 25 when her friend introduced her to Bill Cosby,
0:03:14 > 0:03:16one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23She called him, and then he sent a car over
0:03:23 > 0:03:27to my grandmother's house in West Hollywood to pick us up.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33And so we went to dinner
0:03:33 > 0:03:37at this steak restaurant on the Strip called Sneaky Pete's.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39It was next to the Whiskey a Go Go.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46And pretty soon he put a pill down
0:03:46 > 0:03:49next to my glass, and he said, "Here, take this,
0:03:49 > 0:03:50"it will make you feel better."
0:03:50 > 0:03:54And I went, "Oh, yeah, great, you know, I'll take it.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56"I'll feel better." And I took it.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04Pretty soon I was feeling nauseated,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06I was getting spinners,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10and I was feeling like I couldn't keep my head out of my plate.
0:04:10 > 0:04:11And I wanted to go home.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14So...
0:04:15 > 0:04:18He said, "OK, take you home."
0:04:27 > 0:04:32Instead of turning right to go down onto the Strip, he went uphill.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38And suddenly we're winding around
0:04:38 > 0:04:41and I'm in the back seat,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46doing everything I can not to throw up in the "big star's" car
0:04:46 > 0:04:47and humiliate us all,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50and ruin any possible chances of us
0:04:50 > 0:04:53ever getting an acting part on his show.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59And then, all of a sudden, the car stopped.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01And everything got very silent.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09And I opened my eyes, and we're in front of some...
0:05:09 > 0:05:11it was like a townhouse.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14There were two loveseats.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17And my girlfriend, here she is, passed out,
0:05:17 > 0:05:20lying there, completely gone.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23And he's sitting right next to her on the love seat,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25and he's looking down at her like this.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29And the intensity of the look...
0:05:31 > 0:05:36I mean, it...it... it communicated everything.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38I knew what he had on his mind.
0:05:39 > 0:05:40I knew.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46He got up, and he came over to me,
0:05:46 > 0:05:48and then the next thing I knew,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51I was on my knees, and he was sitting on the love seat
0:05:51 > 0:05:52opening his fly.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56And I was orally raped,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59and then he stood me up and turned me over backwards,
0:05:59 > 0:06:00and did me doggy style.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02And then he walked out.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07And as he was getting to the door, I said,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09"How are we going to get home?"
0:06:09 > 0:06:11And he didn't even look at me.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14He just said, "Call a cab."
0:06:14 > 0:06:16And he slammed out the door.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Victoria chose not to report what she alleges happened to her that night...
0:06:28 > 0:06:30..a silence that lasted decades.
0:06:35 > 0:06:36This was 1969.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40You know. I was a Playmate.
0:06:42 > 0:06:43I had been married to a black man.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46I was an old hippie.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50You know. I was a Bunny.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54The last people we would ever have thought to go to
0:06:54 > 0:06:57would be the police. It never crossed my mind.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22Bill Cosby first exploded onto the comedy scene in the early 1960s
0:07:22 > 0:07:25with appearances on shows such as The Jack Paar Program.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28Wait a minute!
0:07:28 > 0:07:30- LAUGHTER - Are you crazy?
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Raised in the poor suburbs of Philadelphia,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34the son of a maid and an alcoholic father,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37Cosby was one of the first black comedians
0:07:37 > 0:07:39to appeal to mainstream white America.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41# I put a spell on you... #
0:07:43 > 0:07:47He was simply a great, engaging storyteller on the stage,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50technically brilliant as a comedian,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53somebody who didn't simply stand up and tell jokes,
0:07:53 > 0:07:55but really spun stories.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01# You know I can't stand it
0:08:01 > 0:08:03# You're running around... #
0:08:03 > 0:08:05Coming up at a time when America was going through
0:08:05 > 0:08:07the civil rights movement,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11when there was a lot of conflict around race,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14it was a big deal for, you know,
0:08:14 > 0:08:21a broad, multiracial audience to establish this bond with Bill Cosby.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24APPLAUSE
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Cosby's big acting break came in 1965, when, aged 28,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39he was asked to star in a new TV show, I Spy.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44Playing a tennis coach who was also an undercover spy,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Cosby became the first African-American actor
0:08:47 > 0:08:49to star in a mainstream network drama.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54You will hear black people talk about back in the day,
0:08:54 > 0:08:59when they would call everyone to the television if someone black came on.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01And a lot of people go, "Oh, you're just exaggerating."
0:09:01 > 0:09:04No. It's not an exaggeration.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06That's how it was in my household.
0:09:06 > 0:09:07Everybody I knew.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10Hello, sir. Now!
0:09:15 > 0:09:17I was a little kid,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19really, growing up in Tennessee.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23It was so wonderful to see an African-American
0:09:23 > 0:09:28on television on a regular basis, and in a show like that.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30- Watch this now. - GUNSHOT
0:09:30 > 0:09:33- What's that for?- I've got an idea.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37There was no other black, cool secret agents running around.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39Where?
0:09:39 > 0:09:44Bill was smooth, he was good-looking, you know, strapping.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49He was something that, I think, a lot of young black men aspired to.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52And I know, for my generation who came into the business,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54these were the people we looked up to.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58These were the people that opened the doors for us.
0:09:58 > 0:09:59Kicked them open, really.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06I Spy earned Cosby three consecutive Emmys for outstanding lead actor.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12The TV shows were followed in the 1970s
0:10:12 > 0:10:16by leading parts in hit Hollywood movies such as California Suite,
0:10:16 > 0:10:18in which he starred with Richard Pryor.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Well, I knew him through my husband, Richard Pryor.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25And Richard had mad respect for him.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Basically, he idolised Bill.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35He had made it, and a black man making it in America is a big deal,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37and certainly in the comedic world.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41There you have it. I mean, how many black comics were there at the time?
0:10:41 > 0:10:42He had really arrived.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46I mean, film, television, concerts, my God,
0:10:46 > 0:10:49you didn't get bigger than Bill. He was everywhere.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59In his 1983 concert film, Himself,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Cosby's ability to enthral audiences with his storytelling
0:11:02 > 0:11:05cemented his status as the king of stand-up.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11See, when you're a father, you censor yourself.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13You say, "What the...
0:11:13 > 0:11:15"Get your...
0:11:15 > 0:11:16LAUGHTER
0:11:16 > 0:11:18"I'll put a...
0:11:18 > 0:11:20LAUGHTER
0:11:20 > 0:11:22"Get out of my face!"
0:11:22 > 0:11:24APPLAUSE
0:11:29 > 0:11:31The following year, the now 47-year-old Cosby
0:11:31 > 0:11:33created the show which would
0:11:33 > 0:11:36challenge attitudes to race in America
0:11:36 > 0:11:38and turn him into a national icon.
0:11:42 > 0:11:43From its opening titles,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47The Cosby Show depicted a middle-class black family.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50It became one of the biggest television hits of all time.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58There was nothing else on television like The Cosby Show, at the time.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01I was a guest during the second season,
0:12:01 > 0:12:06and I believe that the show I was on pulled a 51 share.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Half, over half of the television sets
0:12:09 > 0:12:12that were turned on at that time in America
0:12:12 > 0:12:15were turned on watching The Cosby Show.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22No show is going to pull those kind of numbers ever again.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24- Hey.- Hey, dear. - Hi, Daddy.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Listen, let's put on some music round here.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Cosby played an obstetrician, Cliff Huxtable,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37married to a successful lawyer, Clair, played by Phylicia Rashad.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46The show was based on his family.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Not only did he have five kids on the show,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53in real life he and Camille Cosby had five children.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Hurry up, I want to take a picture.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58- All you people look so good.- How do I look?- ALL:- Good!
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Family was number one to Bill Cosby.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06And, of course, that is why he created The Cosby Show.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11All right, now this is something I will cherish the rest of my life.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Now, all of you, get out.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20In many ways, Cliff Huxtable was a surrogate Bill Cosby.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Yes!
0:13:25 > 0:13:27He had Bill Cosby's sense of humour.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31He had his mannerisms, he had his way of talking.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33I am your father.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35I brought you in this world, and I'll take you out!
0:13:40 > 0:13:47Cliff Huxtable and Bill Cosby, in the minds of many of us, and for me,
0:13:47 > 0:13:48were pretty much one and the same.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51How can you play that guy so convincingly, and so well,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55and be so sweet and be so wonderful, and not be that guy?
0:13:55 > 0:13:56You are that guy.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57DOORBELL
0:13:57 > 0:13:58They're here!
0:13:59 > 0:14:03The Cosby Show's portrayal of three generations of a stable and loving
0:14:03 > 0:14:06black family was unique in '80s America.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09- I had a little trouble finding the place.- What?
0:14:09 > 0:14:14It was challenging that notion of blackness with wrongness,
0:14:14 > 0:14:19because the media has perpetuated a negative image of the black person.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27And when we see them in the media, it's a person on the ground,
0:14:27 > 0:14:28face down, handcuffed.
0:14:28 > 0:14:36MUSIC: (Night Time Is) The Right Time by Ray Charles
0:14:36 > 0:14:38The Cosby Show was a vehicle by which, now,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41America could see what a black family really is like.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51People didn't just like The Cosby Show,
0:14:51 > 0:14:54they liked liking The Cosby Show, right?
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Like, it was recognised as a social good...
0:14:59 > 0:15:03..that people of all stripes and backgrounds and colours
0:15:03 > 0:15:07could identify with this family and have this family be their favourite
0:15:07 > 0:15:08family on television.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13MUSIC CONTINUES
0:15:15 > 0:15:17It offered white viewers
0:15:17 > 0:15:20a chance to feel good about things
0:15:20 > 0:15:23that they don't often get to feel good about.
0:15:23 > 0:15:24Part of the message
0:15:24 > 0:15:26and the balm that it offered to white America
0:15:26 > 0:15:28was that racial tension was a thing of the past.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31We are all alike here, there's no racial difference,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34and there is no lingering racial resentment.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38We've come to some televised version of a promised land.
0:15:41 > 0:15:42For five of its eight seasons,
0:15:42 > 0:15:47The Cosby Show was the top-rated show on American television.
0:15:47 > 0:15:48It turned Cosby into one of
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Hollywood's wealthiest and most powerful stars.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59It made us feel proud that this successful show
0:15:59 > 0:16:02was created by an African-American...
0:16:04 > 0:16:07..owned by an African-American,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10who produced it as well as starred on it.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16To have someone who had all of this power, all of this money
0:16:16 > 0:16:19and fame, was very significant.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Very, very powerful.
0:16:21 > 0:16:22There are layers of celebrity.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25There's celebrity, you know, you're in a few movies.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27And you're kind of a celebrity.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30There's celebrity by proxy, which is kind of what I am,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33I'm married to a celebrity, you know.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36And there's layers, there's layers.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39And then you get to this mountain,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42this Mount Everest of celebrity,
0:16:42 > 0:16:44which is what Bill was.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46He had everything.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49Bill was a giant in the business.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52And he was making a lot of money for a lot of people, too.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00The show was filmed in New York
0:17:00 > 0:17:03at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09In the early '90s, Cosby invited a young actor, Lili Bernard,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11to spend time at the studios.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15He was mentoring her until she was ready for a part on the show.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Bill Cosby introduced me to the producers and to the writers
0:17:22 > 0:17:25and to the crew and to the cast
0:17:25 > 0:17:27and told them that we would be, you know,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29making a role for Lili Bernard.
0:17:29 > 0:17:30"She's going to be on the show."
0:17:30 > 0:17:32So he had me in there to observe.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34And he was very academic about it.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37It's as if he were a professor and I was a student
0:17:37 > 0:17:39and I had to learn, so that when it was my turn
0:17:39 > 0:17:41to do the role I would be prepared.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45And that was all so exciting, that he cared about my craft,
0:17:45 > 0:17:47and that was exciting to me, to be an artist
0:17:47 > 0:17:50and he cared, and he wants to help hone my skills.
0:17:50 > 0:17:51It was just phenomenal.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56Lili often visited the Cosby studios,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59spending time backstage as Cosby's guest.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05I was used to being on a set where the whole crew was white,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08where it's very, very hard to find, you know,
0:18:08 > 0:18:10a raisin in the bowl of oatmeal.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13You just don't see that. Now, here I'm on a sound stage
0:18:13 > 0:18:15where most of the people are black.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17It was like, wow, that was phenomenal.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19"I get to be a part of that?"
0:18:19 > 0:18:21You know, I get to be a part of history.
0:18:21 > 0:18:22For me, being on The Cosby Show was like
0:18:22 > 0:18:25getting to be a part of history, history that changed.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29You know? It changed the perception of blackness in the world.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34What did the name Bill Cosby mean to you?
0:18:36 > 0:18:43It meant a great force, who lifted the black male image
0:18:43 > 0:18:45and the black family image.
0:18:46 > 0:18:52It meant someone who made me proud of being black.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56It meant advancement.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00And it also meant paternity,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03he was America's dad.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12In Hollywood, we all knew that he was a serial cheater.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14Everybody knew that.
0:19:14 > 0:19:15That was nothing new.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22You've got this image, this perfect wife, this perfect life,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25this perfect career, and you're a serial cheater.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29So, I mean, a serial cheater.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31There was just kind of the...
0:19:32 > 0:19:35..knowledge that he liked women.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40On the set, it was the parade,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43that's what we referred to it as.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47They would come in in threes and fours, you know.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49I guess they were auditioning.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53I don't know that any of them actually got parts.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56And he liked, it seemed, a very particular...
0:19:58 > 0:19:59You know.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02He had a look that he liked.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Lighter skin, longer hair.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09He had this obsession with straight hair, right?
0:20:09 > 0:20:12He bought this blow dryer for me,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16and often when he mentored me, he told me to first straighten my hair,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18because he wanted to see what I would look like
0:20:18 > 0:20:20with straight hair in my role,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23and he wanted it slicked back, slicked back, like a ballerina.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30After a year of mentoring,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Lili Bernard was still waiting for her long-promised part on the show.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40One day, Cosby asked her to come to meet a film producer with him.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48We were in New York, and he told me that I had to go to Atlantic City,
0:20:48 > 0:20:50New Jersey, to meet a producer who would further my career.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01So before going there he talked to me about this new hotel called the
0:21:01 > 0:21:03Trump Taj Mahal hotel.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11The car came for me, it took me to the hotel.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19I get taken upstairs, to this gigantic suite.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28And so he gives me this drink, you know, and it's brown...
0:21:28 > 0:21:30And he's like, "Drink it, Bernard, drink it."
0:21:30 > 0:21:33And so he actually takes the glass and lifts it up,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36and pushes it to my face with this kind of exciting energy.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39And I'm like, "Mr C, I told you, I don't drink alcohol, what is this?"
0:21:39 > 0:21:40And he was like, "Drink, drink."
0:21:40 > 0:21:42I was like, "OK, you know, whatever."
0:21:42 > 0:21:46I'm just, like, obeying Daddy, basically, because he used to say,
0:21:46 > 0:21:48"Daddy's here! Daddy's here!"
0:21:48 > 0:21:49And...
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Then very shortly, you know, very shortly,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55I started getting a sick sensation.
0:22:00 > 0:22:06The next memory I have is now I'm in a living room area, and...
0:22:07 > 0:22:10..it's carpet underneath my back.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13And I remember opening my eyes and seeing brown, you know,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15it was definitely Bill Cosby.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22As he was thrusting upon me my back was going, like,
0:22:22 > 0:22:23against the grain of the rug,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25and I just remember the burning sensation
0:22:25 > 0:22:26on the back and my shoulder.
0:22:26 > 0:22:27I remember a heaviness.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Again, I couldn't move. I'm like, you know, like...
0:22:30 > 0:22:31feeling like lead,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34very, very heavy, as if I were paralysed.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41So I feel like a stick inside of my body, that's what it feels like,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44a stick. And I said stick because again, it's like
0:22:44 > 0:22:48the last thing I could ever imagine was that Bill Cosby was raping me.
0:22:48 > 0:22:49Can you believe that?
0:22:49 > 0:22:52My trust for him, as my father figure, was so great,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55I trusted him so much, that I couldn't make that connection,
0:22:55 > 0:22:56that he could possibly do that.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03Yoo-hoo, hello?
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Soon after this alleged incident,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Lili finally got to play her long- promised part on The Cosby Show.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17When the contractions reach eight minutes apart,
0:23:17 > 0:23:19that's when you call me.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22What did I just say?
0:23:22 > 0:23:23Call you every eight minutes.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30It was to be her only appearance.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34- OK, thank you.- Well, I guess I'm off.
0:23:34 > 0:23:35Yes, in more ways than one.
0:23:38 > 0:23:39Bye-bye.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45She thought of reporting her allegation,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47but says Cosby persuaded her otherwise.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52When I told him that I would go to the police station
0:23:52 > 0:23:54he told me that he would file a police report against me
0:23:54 > 0:23:57for false accusation and defamation
0:23:57 > 0:24:00and that, "You know what you get for a false accusation, Bernard?
0:24:00 > 0:24:02"You get your ass in jail, that's what you get, Bernard."
0:24:02 > 0:24:05And he's like, "You and I are through, Bernard,"
0:24:05 > 0:24:06he said, "We're through.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10"I don't ever want to see your face again. You don't exist.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13"You are dead, do you hear me, Bernard? You are dead.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16"I will erase you, do you hear me?
0:24:16 > 0:24:17"Are you listening?
0:24:17 > 0:24:19"Are you listening, Bernard? I will erase you."
0:24:23 > 0:24:25He was like my dad, you know.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29He was my dad. And he made it very clear that I was one of his kids.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31That's one thing he always used to say to me.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33"You're one of my kids, Bernard, you're one of my kids."
0:24:38 > 0:24:41After eight hit seasons, The Cosby Show ended in 1992.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49Cosby continued producing TV shows throughout the '90s,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51though none had the success of The Cosby Show.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57But his reputation off-screen continue to grow,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01as he used his fame to promote the education of African-Americans.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03This is a hip home town.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Cosby handed out cheques for millions of dollars
0:25:06 > 0:25:09to black colleges around America.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11He looked at it for a while, and then he said
0:25:11 > 0:25:14something, I think it was in Latin.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16LAUGHTER
0:25:16 > 0:25:18You know, like...
0:25:18 > 0:25:19Damn!
0:25:22 > 0:25:28Bill Cosby and Camille Cosby were just phenomenal, incredible,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30when it came to giving back.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33They were great philanthropists.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37He has such a well-rounded reputation.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40I mean, how could one man...
0:25:42 > 0:25:46..do so much, and be so perfect in so many areas, you know?
0:25:46 > 0:25:47It's like that.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Cosby was growing increasingly concerned
0:25:55 > 0:25:57about the fate of black America.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04On May the 17th 2004,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06he gave a now infamous speech
0:26:06 > 0:26:09about the problems he believed plagued the African-American poor.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33Cosby crisscrossed the country
0:26:33 > 0:26:36telling African-Americans to change their ways.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Protect your child!
0:26:41 > 0:26:45The kid could be busted tonight.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47It's cursing, and it's calling each other niggers
0:26:47 > 0:26:49as they walk up and down the street.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52They think they're hip. They can't read, they can't write.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58Bill was going around the country, mostly to urban America,
0:26:58 > 0:27:03and talking tough to inner-city, mostly black men,
0:27:03 > 0:27:04about getting an education,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08not using drugs, and pulling their pants up, not wearing them low.
0:27:08 > 0:27:1170% of teenage pregnancy...
0:27:13 > 0:27:17..African-American female teenage girls.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20He really directed so much ire at women
0:27:20 > 0:27:23for being bad mothers, unfaithful partners...
0:27:24 > 0:27:27..sexually promiscuous, not around
0:27:27 > 0:27:30for their kids, you know, not working...
0:27:30 > 0:27:32for having been the opposite of everything
0:27:32 > 0:27:34that he had presented Clair Huxtable as being.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36I'm tired of this.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39I'm very, very tired.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43Some of the things I related to, and understood where he was coming from.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48But he began to go on and on
0:27:48 > 0:27:51about things that made me kind of
0:27:51 > 0:27:54like, eww, cringe,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56as a black woman.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01And I had wished there were things that he had not said.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04But who can control Cosby?
0:28:09 > 0:28:11The now 67-year-old Cosby was about to suffer
0:28:11 > 0:28:14the first blow to his formidable reputation.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Major news networks reported that a woman had come forward
0:28:19 > 0:28:21with a serious accusation against him.
0:28:24 > 0:28:25Police in suburban Philadelphia
0:28:25 > 0:28:28are investigating entertainer Bill Cosby.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31A family friend accuses the comedian of fondling her.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33It's a charge he strongly denies.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42The woman alleged the sexual assault
0:28:42 > 0:28:44had taken place at Cosby's home, outside Philadelphia.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50The criminal suit involved one woman against a big star,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54and we didn't even know her name, quite frankly.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57We knew some brief sketches, details about her life.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59In other words, she met him through Temple University.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01You know, she now lived in Canada.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04She came forward a year later, things like that.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09I'm not sure how much we really knew about even what degree of sexual
0:29:09 > 0:29:11assault she was alleging at the time.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16The woman reported the alleged attack,
0:29:16 > 0:29:18but prosecutors decided to take no further action.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25So the complaint gets filed, there's an investigation, Bill Cosby,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28ultimately, is not charged.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30And the district attorney explained why.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33He said, "It's something of a he said, she said case,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35"I don't have enough evidence."
0:29:35 > 0:29:37He kind of went one step further, and said
0:29:37 > 0:29:41that there's things on both sides that make it a difficult case,
0:29:41 > 0:29:44that there's things that weigh against her, there's things that weigh against him.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46But in the end of the day,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48he did not feel that he could get probable cause
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and win a conviction.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54But Cosby's problems didn't end there.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Having failed to have him charged,
0:29:58 > 0:30:01the woman now sued him for damages.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03No longer protected by anonymity,
0:30:03 > 0:30:05she was revealed as 30-year-old
0:30:05 > 0:30:08former university sports administrator Andrea Constand.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19So some months after the prosecutor decides not to charge Bill Cosby,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22the woman files a civil sexual battery suit,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24sexual battery and defamation,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28and defamation for the fact that he and his agents had basically said,
0:30:28 > 0:30:30"I didn't do it. She's lying."
0:30:35 > 0:30:38Hearing about the civil suit against Cosby,
0:30:38 > 0:30:4013 women now approached Constand's lawyers
0:30:40 > 0:30:43to say that they too had been raped or sexually assaulted by him.
0:30:48 > 0:30:49Most remained anonymous.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Beth Ferrier, a former model, went public.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59I wanted to support Andrea Constand.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05I wanted to not allow him to blackball her,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08and hurt her like he'd hurt me.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11I wanted to stop it. And I wanted to stop him.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16Beth had previously been in a
0:31:16 > 0:31:18consensual sexual relationship with Cosby.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22She alleged that after their relationship ended in 1985,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Cosby invited her backstage before his concert in Denver,
0:31:26 > 0:31:27and sexually assaulted her.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31I was raped. I was drugged.
0:31:35 > 0:31:36Yes, I was.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43I ended up waking up, two or three in the morning,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47dumped in the back of my car with my clothes all off and on,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51and whatever he gave me was enough to make you
0:31:51 > 0:31:54be like tranquillised.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56But I could move,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59but it was a dark alley.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01I was, like, disposed of like trash.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09My thought was, "Did they take pictures of me?"
0:32:09 > 0:32:12You know. What really happened?
0:32:12 > 0:32:14And not having that knowledge is very...
0:32:16 > 0:32:18It's terrible.
0:32:18 > 0:32:19And it leaves you...
0:32:19 > 0:32:21I was so young.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28None of the 13 women now accusing Cosby
0:32:28 > 0:32:31had gone to the police at the time of their alleged attacks.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Would you call the police on Bill Cosby?
0:32:35 > 0:32:38I mean, the whole question was, I didn't think...
0:32:38 > 0:32:40There was never that thought.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45During Andrea Constand's lawsuit
0:32:45 > 0:32:48Cosby was forced to give four days of evidence
0:32:48 > 0:32:50in a private hearing at a Philadelphia hotel.
0:32:53 > 0:32:54The testimony was confidential.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01In November 2006, Cosby reached a settlement with Andrea Constand.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06Its terms, and Cosby's testimony, were kept secret.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13So the case settles, and we don't have a lot of details.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17We can't see what was said, and what was not said, and what was denied.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19And we don't know the amount.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22We don't know who was held credible.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24We really don't know if she got a dollar.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28We wrote about it, and I think, to some degree, we went on our merry way.
0:33:28 > 0:33:29At least, I did.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35Most of the media now moved on from the allegations against Cosby.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39In Philadelphia,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42one journalist felt it was still a story worth investigating.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48It just struck me in a commonsensical way,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50if there are so many women claiming
0:33:50 > 0:33:53that the same thing happened to them,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55I, as a journalist, need to look at it.
0:33:55 > 0:34:00That's a lot of women claiming something really bad had happened to
0:34:00 > 0:34:02them literally at the hands of Bill Cosby.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05What is up with that? Is there something to it?
0:34:07 > 0:34:10I got to a fundamental question, which was,
0:34:10 > 0:34:15is he trying to save black America, struggling black America,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19as a bet against these accusations?
0:34:19 > 0:34:24Is the presentation of Dr Huxtable and other public comedic
0:34:24 > 0:34:28presentations of Cosby, is that a hedge against, perhaps,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32private behaviour that is very different from that?
0:34:36 > 0:34:38Robert Huber was the first journalist
0:34:38 > 0:34:40to write a major piece about the allegations
0:34:40 > 0:34:41now circling around Cosby.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50I thought it would be picked up by other media,
0:34:50 > 0:34:52that it would be talked about,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57that the dynamic of who Bill Cosby was in the public consciousness
0:34:57 > 0:34:59would utterly and immediately change.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01Well, as we know, it didn't.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05The media was, essentially, silent.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11It seemed like such a fundamental and important story,
0:35:11 > 0:35:12how could it not be chased?
0:35:12 > 0:35:13How could it not be pursued?
0:35:17 > 0:35:20America did not want to know that
0:35:20 > 0:35:24Bill Cosby was being accused of these horrific crimes.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30He'd created a world that had been so powerful for so many Americans,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33and especially for white Americans,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36who did not want to have to contemplate that
0:35:36 > 0:35:39the image of racial relations that they bought into,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41in loving The Cosby Show and loving Bill Cosby,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44might have been built on a set of dreadful lies.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55Tonight...
0:35:55 > 0:35:57direct from our nation's capital,
0:35:57 > 0:36:02it's the 12th annual Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American humour,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04celebrating a national treasure,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06the great Bill Cosby.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15In 2009, in a major televised event,
0:36:15 > 0:36:16Cosby was honoured for his
0:36:16 > 0:36:19outstanding contribution to American comedy.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25I want to say this man is one of the...without a doubt,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28one of the biggest influences ever in my life.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30Neither Cosby nor the celebrities present
0:36:30 > 0:36:32gave any hint of the fact that 13 women
0:36:32 > 0:36:36had been prepared to testify that he had drugged and raped them.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40His reputation remained untarnished.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43Even though we are here tonight to honour him,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47I must also say how honoured I feel that, tonight, I am somehow,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50somehow standing here with the opportunity
0:36:50 > 0:36:53to publicly thank him for all he has meant to me.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03It griped my ass.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06I hated it.
0:37:06 > 0:37:07It twisted my gut.
0:37:09 > 0:37:15All of his accolades, every time I heard, my stomach would twist.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Because I knew who he really was.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28It just thoroughly disgusted me.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33He just continued to be famous,
0:37:33 > 0:37:38while we all just went back into the woodwork.
0:37:38 > 0:37:39We're just in the shadows.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Hit it, spinner.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48HE RAPS
0:37:48 > 0:37:54By 2013, the now 76-year-old Cosby was as busy and popular as ever,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58appearing on national talk shows before adoring fans and presenters.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02Bill Cosby, everybody.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06You are nothing if not intelligent,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09worldly, intuitive, wildly smart...
0:38:11 > 0:38:12He was planning a new tour...
0:38:14 > 0:38:17..a comedy special with Netflix
0:38:17 > 0:38:19and was about to star in a new sitcom with NBC.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25But all that was about to change.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress
0:38:43 > 0:38:45made a joke about Bill Cosby and rape.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Sitting in the audience was a Philadelphia magazine journalist.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57I like to think I'm pretty good at knowing when something needs to be
0:38:57 > 0:39:00filmed for a story, and as soon as he said Cosby, I...
0:39:00 > 0:39:03like, something clicked in my head, and I was like, "Newsworthy!
0:39:03 > 0:39:05"Let's start filming."
0:39:21 > 0:39:23I wrote the thing in the morning,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26and I don't think it got posted until late in the day.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32I believe it was BuzzFeed picked up on it.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36Once a site of that size picked up on it, it was all over.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41Suddenly, you know, every site had written about it.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57Hannibal, when he said that, and the grainy kind of shitty video,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01crappy video that was taken at that show, he was pissed.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03He said, "Don't you lecture me.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05"I don't want to hear it. You're a rapist."
0:40:07 > 0:40:08Bow!
0:40:08 > 0:40:10It just caught fire.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13That was it. That was the fire, that was the match.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20My feeling was,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23"Oh, my God, here it is."
0:40:23 > 0:40:28And where were you ten years ago, media and people talking about it?
0:40:31 > 0:40:33Hannibal Buress was referring to
0:40:33 > 0:40:36allegations first made ten years earlier.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38This time, America listened.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Buress was the tipping point.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44He was the one,
0:40:44 > 0:40:49because you have a black man saying to another black man,
0:40:49 > 0:40:51"Don't lecture us any more.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53"We don't like it - 'Pull your pants up.'"
0:40:53 > 0:40:55It was a brother accusing a brother.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59That is more believable than it would be
0:40:59 > 0:41:02if Hannibal had been a white man.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Then the black community would have cried racism.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11There was a certain safety in, well,
0:41:11 > 0:41:15if a black man is saying this so directly,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17maybe it's something we can look at,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20we being the media and
0:41:20 > 0:41:22white people collectively.
0:41:22 > 0:41:23Maybe there's something to it,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26a safety in him starting it.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28I have to ask about your name
0:41:28 > 0:41:33coming up in the news recently regarding this comedian.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35No, no, we don't answer that.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Three weeks after the Buress video first appeared,
0:41:38 > 0:41:39Cosby did an interview
0:41:39 > 0:41:42about a donation he was making to a museum.
0:41:42 > 0:41:43Can I ask you,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47with the persona that people know about Bill Cosby,
0:41:47 > 0:41:50should they believe anything differently about what...?
0:41:50 > 0:41:53There is no comment about that.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56Now, can I get something from you?
0:41:56 > 0:41:59- What's that?- That none of that will be shown?
0:41:59 > 0:42:01You didn't say anything.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03I know I didn't say anything...
0:42:04 > 0:42:07I will tell that to my editors.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09And I think that they will understand.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13I think if you want to consider yourself to be serious,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15that it will not appear anywhere.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24In Los Angeles, the furore surrounding
0:42:24 > 0:42:28the Hannibal Buress video reached Victoria Valentino.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32She had kept her story secret for 45 years.
0:42:35 > 0:42:41It hit me. It was like this little red rocket went off from my gut
0:42:41 > 0:42:43and exploded in my brain.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48I was so pissed off, it was, like, a comedian,
0:42:48 > 0:42:51a man, a black man as it turns out,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55but a man was suddenly believed.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58And a woman was not believed.
0:42:58 > 0:43:04But I knew I had to speak up at that point. It was time.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11You allege that Bill Cosby drugged you
0:43:11 > 0:43:13and then sexually assaulted you.
0:43:13 > 0:43:19Yes. He drugged me and my roommate, who he had eyes for.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23It was absolutely liberating.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27It was incredible, to actually get it out,
0:43:27 > 0:43:34to be heard, to be validated, to be listened to as if I were...
0:43:36 > 0:43:39..you know...an intelligent person.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48And the drumbeat continues.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50Two more women have come forward
0:43:50 > 0:43:54with allegations of sexual assault by Bill Cosby.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56Victoria joined a growing number of women
0:43:56 > 0:43:59now making new accusations against Cosby
0:43:59 > 0:44:01spanning the past 50 years.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07Many of the women contacted
0:44:07 > 0:44:10America's best-known women's rights lawyer, Gloria Allred.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Women then started calling me
0:44:14 > 0:44:19and sharing with me their accusations against Mr Cosby.
0:44:19 > 0:44:25Of course, supporters of Mr Cosby, who love the fantasy,
0:44:25 > 0:44:31that he is what you see on television, as Dr Huxtable,
0:44:31 > 0:44:33they're going to be disturbed,
0:44:33 > 0:44:35because it does interrupt the fantasy.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39But I'm here about the reality. I'm not here about the fantasy.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53Gloria Allred now put Cosby's accusers before the world's media
0:44:53 > 0:44:54to tell their stories.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00Hello and thank you. My name is Beth Ferrier.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02This is my statement.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05I believe that Mr Cosby drugged me
0:45:05 > 0:45:08and sexually assaulted me that night.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14I was able to look at all those people around the room and tell them,
0:45:14 > 0:45:16"I'm telling you the truth.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19"This is who this person really is."
0:45:24 > 0:45:27And then more and more contacted me, and then more, and more.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31He approached me from behind,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34and reached over my shoulder and grabbed my right breast.
0:45:35 > 0:45:40It was like, wow, it was like the wave, you know?
0:45:40 > 0:45:43The truth was finally coming out.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51A reputation carefully built over 50 years
0:45:51 > 0:45:53was finally beginning to unravel.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56News bulletins reported how
0:45:56 > 0:45:58attitudes towards Cosby were changing.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06NBC ditches its plan to bring Bill Cosby back to prime time.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10The decision comes a day after Netflix announced that it postponed
0:46:10 > 0:46:12a stand-up comedy special featuring Cosby.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14The rape allegations were now
0:46:14 > 0:46:17the subject of jokes on national television.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20This guy has put more people to sleep than warm milk!
0:46:23 > 0:46:26Cosby admitted to a reporter, I put the pills in the people.
0:46:28 > 0:46:30The people did not want the pills in them.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33APPLAUSE
0:46:37 > 0:46:39But not everyone abandoned Cosby.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46It's a small show-business community, and quite frankly,
0:46:46 > 0:46:48some of those women are lying.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51I'll tell you that right now. Some of them are lying,
0:46:51 > 0:46:53trying to get publicity,
0:46:53 > 0:46:55to help their careers,
0:46:55 > 0:47:00or because they want to be in on something special.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03Or, if it's that bad, then you call the police right then and there.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Let's not wait 20 years
0:47:05 > 0:47:09and then come out with a bunch of tears and, you know, all of that.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17Some celebrities, particularly in the black community,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19also stuck by him,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22including his on-screen wife from The Cosby Show.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27Well, my initial reaction to the allegations was...
0:47:27 > 0:47:32"Hmmm, someone has a vested interest in
0:47:32 > 0:47:37"preventing Mr Cosby's return to network television."
0:47:37 > 0:47:38On daytime TV show The View,
0:47:38 > 0:47:43Whoopi Goldberg argued people shouldn't rush to judgment.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Because until you know if it's true,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50until you know that it's true, it's an allegation.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53That's all it... That's what it is.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55So, for me...
0:47:55 > 0:47:58So many people in our community
0:47:58 > 0:48:05don't want to believe it, because Cosby has been so big, such an icon
0:48:05 > 0:48:09but such a positive role model for so many years,
0:48:09 > 0:48:11and we don't want to believe this is true.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13I don't want to believe this is true.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20Lili Bernard, now a Los Angeles artist,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23was initially reluctant to come forward to tell her story.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30So my coming forward meant that I would have to, now,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32contend with black America,
0:48:32 > 0:48:34and how is black America going to view me
0:48:34 > 0:48:36as a black woman speaking out against an icon?
0:48:39 > 0:48:43We'd be illuminating another great black man
0:48:43 > 0:48:45as a scoundrel, right?
0:48:45 > 0:48:50And so what would that do for the image of the black man?
0:48:50 > 0:48:53And that was a burden to bear.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57Like, I felt like I was going to be crucified.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00I felt like, wow, that my own black community was going to crucify me.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06But what started happening was that all of these women
0:49:06 > 0:49:07are coming forward.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10I'm just going to be silent? I'm not going to say anything?
0:49:10 > 0:49:12So I felt internally conflicted,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16and I felt this urge, thinking, like, "I have to speak."
0:49:19 > 0:49:25On May the 15th 2015, Lili broke 25 years of silence.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32I walk into a room, and there is just, like,
0:49:32 > 0:49:3520 press cameras and microphones here
0:49:35 > 0:49:39and 20 over here, and we're on this little platform,
0:49:39 > 0:49:42and I'm, like, "Oh, wow, I'm going to do this."
0:49:42 > 0:49:47After he had won my complete trust and adoration,
0:49:47 > 0:49:49he drugged and raped me.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54Let...
0:49:54 > 0:49:56'During that press conference I'm crying.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59'You know? And I'm hyperventilating, I can't catch my breath.'
0:49:59 > 0:50:03It was the first time I'd talked about the rape publicly.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05His last words to me were...
0:50:06 > 0:50:10.."As far as I'm concerned, Bernard, you're dead.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14"Do you hear me? You're dead, Bernard.
0:50:14 > 0:50:15"You don't exist."
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Joseph Phillips had worked with Lili on The Cosby Show.
0:50:25 > 0:50:26They were good friends.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31It began to be harder and harder
0:50:31 > 0:50:36to defend, more and more people coming out.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40People I knew came forward and said things.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45I thought, "This is different.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48"I know her. And I know she's not crazy.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51"And I know she doesn't need anything.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56"And yet she's saying something's happened."
0:50:58 > 0:51:02It took that for me to finally say...
0:51:06 > 0:51:07.."I think he's guilty."
0:51:11 > 0:51:14It was the rug being pulled out from under me...
0:51:16 > 0:51:17..because...
0:51:19 > 0:51:21..I loved him...
0:51:23 > 0:51:25..and felt...
0:51:25 > 0:51:29Just the amount of respect I had for him.
0:51:29 > 0:51:30And I felt cheated.
0:51:30 > 0:51:32I felt lied to.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40He was America's dad.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47Bill Cosby's reputation was now in tatters.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51But he had never been charged with any crime.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56Under the US statute of limitations,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59all the alleged incidents had occurred too long ago...
0:52:01 > 0:52:02..all except one...
0:52:04 > 0:52:07..the alleged sexual assault of Andrea Constand in 2004.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13I remember thinking, "You know,
0:52:13 > 0:52:14"let's go back and look at the 2004 case,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17"and see if there's anything more we can glean from it."
0:52:17 > 0:52:18And as I looked, I realised,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20"I think that's the only time he
0:52:20 > 0:52:21"ever had to give testimony under oath,"
0:52:21 > 0:52:24and to me, the critical thing was
0:52:24 > 0:52:27it doesn't matter to me what Bill Cosby's agent says in front of the
0:52:27 > 0:52:31camera, quite frankly, or what Bill Cosby says in a celebrity magazine.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33What I care about is "What did he say under oath?"
0:52:39 > 0:52:42During the civil case brought against him in 2005,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45Cosby had given four days of confidential testimony
0:52:45 > 0:52:47to Andrea Constand's lawyers.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53Maryclaire Dale and the Associated Press now went to court
0:52:53 > 0:52:56to see if they could have Cosby's secret deposition released.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06Mr Cosby's lawyers argued that this is a private matter
0:53:06 > 0:53:09and that it would be very embarrassing for Mr Cosby,
0:53:09 > 0:53:10that he has the right to privacy.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14And the Associated Press argued that he had asserted himself
0:53:14 > 0:53:16into the public conversation,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19that he really had a diminished right to privacy,
0:53:19 > 0:53:23because he wasn't just Joe Citizen, he is a celebrity,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26he is a celebrity who preaches to the rest of us about morality and
0:53:26 > 0:53:28behaviour and conduct.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34The judge decided that Cosby's years of public moralising
0:53:34 > 0:53:35negated his right to privacy.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42He ruled in favour of Maryclaire and released Cosby's testimony.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50There was patterns that emerged, you know,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53there was patterns where he offered to mentor somebody,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56offered to give somebody a small part in his show,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59they were often very young,
0:53:59 > 0:54:01and acknowledging that he then had
0:54:01 > 0:54:05some level of sexual activity with them.
0:54:11 > 0:54:16He testified that he had given pills, Quaaludes, to women,
0:54:16 > 0:54:18with the intent to have sex with those women.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28It was just unbelievable,
0:54:28 > 0:54:32because there he was, actually saying it.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36So nobody could say to us what they had been saying,
0:54:36 > 0:54:39that we were gold-diggers, that we were whores,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43that we were just out to bring this good black man down.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46You know? This was true,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50because we heard it in his own words.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58So he was a very different man
0:54:58 > 0:55:02than the sort of morality that he advertises in his public life.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04And people reacted very strongly to that.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24As the evidence mounted,
0:55:24 > 0:55:27even those who had previously appeared to defend Cosby
0:55:27 > 0:55:29now abandoned him.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32If this is to be tried in the court of public opinion,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37I've got to say, all of the information that's out there
0:55:37 > 0:55:39kind of points to guilt.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44The evidence revealed in Cosby's testimony was key.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48It convinced prosecutors to re-examine their decision
0:55:48 > 0:55:52not to charge him in 2005 for the alleged assault of Andrea Constand...
0:55:55 > 0:55:59..a view strengthened by the number of accusers who had now come forward.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04So it's not a she said, he said,
0:56:04 > 0:56:09it will be a he said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said...
0:56:10 > 0:56:15Breaking news. For the first time Bill Cosby has been criminally
0:56:15 > 0:56:18charged with aggravated indecent assault.
0:56:18 > 0:56:19This is a sexual assault charge.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26Bill Cosby has been charged with
0:56:26 > 0:56:28three counts of indecent sexual assault.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39If found guilty, he faces up to ten years in prison.
0:56:48 > 0:56:54Everything that he built, over his entire fantastic career,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58the philanthropy, his support of education,
0:56:58 > 0:57:00opening doors for black directors,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04black cameramen etc etc,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08there's that legacy of Bill Cosby
0:57:08 > 0:57:10that is now tarnished, is threatened.
0:57:14 > 0:57:15It's heartbreaking.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19Guilt or innocent.
0:57:20 > 0:57:21It's just heartbreaking.
0:57:22 > 0:57:27Because he was a great man, and I want to say he still is a great man.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39When America's dad turns out to be a predator...
0:57:41 > 0:57:45..you know, it's like losing a monument or something.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47That doesn't change that The Cosby Show
0:57:47 > 0:57:51is one of the most important parts of television history.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56You know, I think the importance of Bill Cosby's work doesn't change.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03It's the vehicle that Bill Cosby used
0:58:03 > 0:58:06as a smokescreen to disguise his criminality,
0:58:06 > 0:58:10to divert the world from knowing that he's nothing but a
0:58:10 > 0:58:12low-down, dirty, lying coward
0:58:12 > 0:58:16who is wreaking havoc upon women's lives.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21So that's all The Cosby Show was.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24That's all his philanthropy, that's all of his moralising
0:58:24 > 0:58:26and his giving of millions of dollars was,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28a smokescreen, a diversion.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36You can't get away with this crap forever.
0:58:36 > 0:58:41You can't. It comes back on you sooner or later.
0:58:43 > 0:58:45And I'm grateful that it has.