Supermodel Beverly Johnson: “Bill Cosby Drugged Me”

Legendary supermodel Beverly Johnson has written a Vanity Fair essay claiming she was drugged by Bill Cosby in the mid-’80s during a visit to the comedian’s New York home.

In her first-person account, titled “Bill Cosby Drugged Me. This Is My Story,” Johnson wrote that she hesitated to go public with her story because a voice in her head kept whispering, “Black men have enough enemies out there already, they certainly don’t need someone like you, an African American with a familiar face and a famous name, fanning the flames.”

Several women, including Johnson’s longtime friend and fellow supermodel Janice Dickinson, have come forward in the past month with allegations that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them.

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“I couldn’t sit back and watch the other women be vilified and shamed for something I knew was true,” Johnson wrote.

Read more How the Bill Cosby Story Snowballed

“I reached the conclusion that the current attack on African American men has absolutely nothing to do at all with Bill Cosby. He brought this on himself when he decided he had the right to have his way with who knows how many women over the last four decades. If anything, Cosby is distinguished from the majority of black men in this country because he could depend on the powers that be for support and protection,” Johnson wrote.

Johnson wrote that she was visiting Cosby’s New York brownstone to test for a role on The Cosby Show when the comedian gave her a cappuccino that made her woozy. “I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good,” she wrote.

In her alleged drugged state, Johnson launched into a tirade that angered Cosby to the point he pulled her outside and shoved her into a taxi. She awoke in her bed the next day with no recollection of how she got there.

A phone call to Cosby for an explanation was answered by his wife, Camille, and never returned. Johnson wrote that the feelings of guilt that followed kept her from coming forward with her story until now.

Cosby has not addressed any of the allegations, though he has canceled several tour dates in the face of mounting public criticism. His reps and attorneys have denied previous allegations against him.