Bill Cosby’s co-stars from The Cosby Show: what they’ve said about his allegations, legal troubles

In 2015, Phylicia Rashad first told ABC News: “There is the Constitution of the United States, which ensures innocence until proof of guilt, and that has not happened. But what has happened is declaration in the media of guilt, without proof. And a legacy is being destroyed because of it. It’s being obliterated.”

After his prison release in 2021, she tweeted: “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted – a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” After her response received massive backlash, she followed it up with: “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth.”

In 2015, Malcolm-Jamal Warner told Billboard, in part: “He’s one of my mentors, and he’s been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor. Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.”

In 2023, he mentioned during an interview that some of the show’s cast could’ve been making “a killing” now if the show’s legacy hadn’t been affected by the assault cases. “I get how this business works. For one, and just that whole situation is so layered, man,” he said. “I can’t defend him or his actions at all. But I also can’t throw him under the bus completely.”

Speaking with Net-A-Porter in 2018, Lisa Bonet commented: “There was no knowledge on my part about his specific actions, but… There was just energy. And that type of sinister, shadow energy cannot be concealed.”

She confirms that she “always” felt that energy from him, adding: “And if I had anything more to reveal then it would have happened a long time ago. That’s my nature. The truth will set you free.”

In 2020, after Keshia Knight Pulliam interviewed Bill on her podcast Kandidly Keshia, she defended her decision not to ask him about the assault cases. “I chose not to [discuss it] because … that was not my experience with him, and I wanted to share with the world the man I knew,” she told HuffPost Live.

“We just talked about our experience, what it was like on The Cosby Show, the magic that we created, because [those allegations were] never my experience with him. So I can only speak to the perspective of the man that I’ve known.”

In 2025, on an episode of Jamie Kennedy’s podcast Hate to Break It to Ya, Raven-Symoné said: “Separate the creator from the creation, and that’s just where I live. The creation changed America, changed television,” adding of her former co-star: “He has been accused of some horrific things, and that does not excuse [anything].”

“But that’s his personal. Personally, keep that there, and then, business-wise, know what he did there as well. Both can live, and I think our culture is right to not do wrong. You just can’t do wrong.”