Raven Symoné Hits Back at ‘Disgusting’ Rumors Bill Cosby Abused Her

Former Disney star Raven Symoné has hit back at the rumors and speculation she was sexually abused by comedian Bill Cosby while she played a part in the hit 1980’s sitcom The Cosby Show. She labels the mere suggestion of such a thing as disgusting and took to Instagram to express her extreme discontent at such an allegation having arisen regarding her.

Symoné’s post also contains her defense of Cosby and the rest of the show’s cast, with her giving the statement that she had only received kind treatment and care during her time on the series. The 28-year-old expressed that she was especially horrified at these claims due to the fact that she was barely more than an infant at the time, having first appeared on the show at age three (she played the role of Cosby’s step-granddaughter, Olivia Huxtable.) Symoné wrapped up her message by once again insisting that the 77-year-old had never exhibited inappropriate behavior towards her in her life, and asking the public and media to leave her out of the entire scandal altogether from now on.

The speculation in question began last week, after a parody website posted that the Georgia native was telling the public stories of her sexual abuse at Cosby’s hands, which she allegedly detailed as having happened shortly after she appeared on the series as a child. The site, a joke new site entitled HipHopHangover, said in their article that the That’s So Raven star had actually filed charges against Cosby for drugging and raping her in the time following the show having wrapped up production. It was also stated that Cosby would originally not allow the actress on set during the show’s final season, but changed his mind for an undisclosed reason and extended her invitation to participate in filming further.

The article was accompanied by an excerpt from a phony letter allegedly penned by Symoné’s lawyer, in which he blasted the public and media for continuing to show support for a man he labeled as terrible and insisted had more than one skeleton in his past regarding the alleged molestation. The statement wraps up with the lawyer claiming to confirm that he and his client will be seeking unspecified damages and seeking justice in order to help undo the horrifying wrong Cosby committed years ago.

Symoné has certainly been receiving her fair share of media attention over the past few months. In early October, the ex Cheetah Girl openly came out as gay to the public, by way of an interview with Oprah Winfrey that was conducted in the same month. The announcement came after Winfrey asked the actress to detail the reason behind her tweet of the year previous, expressing her happiness that she could finally wed following the ejection of her state’s same-sex marriage ban. Symoné confirmed fans’ speculation that she was, indeed, a lesbian, but followed this up that she in no way wanted to be labeled as a gay person. Her reasoning for this, she said, lays with the fact that she believes everyone should be called a human being and not put in a certain box. In the same regard, she says she does not want to be called African-American either, and she is simply another individual going through life and surviving just like the rest of the world day by day.

It remains to be seen whether Raven Symoné will take any sort of action to try to get the parody article pulled from HipHopHangover in the wake of her upset surrounding its content. Further followup on the matter has yet to be revealed.

By Rebecca Grace

Sources:
TMZ
CBS News
US Weekly
Photo by Alex Calderon – Flickr License