‘He tried to kiss me’: Kathie Lee Gifford details moment Bill Cosby crossed a line during comedy tour
Kathie Lee Gifford is sharing new details about the time Bill Cosby allegedly tried to kiss her, saying the disgraced comedian was not the only man to cross a line with her.
The talk show host told People in a new interview that the now-incarcerated actor was a “good friend” of hers during a comedy tour in the late 1970s. But the friendship apparently wasn’t enough for “America’s Dad.”
“He tried to kiss me,” Gifford said, before recalling the awkward interaction.
“I said, ‘No. Bill, you’re my friend,’” she told the magazine. “He goes, ‘You’re right. Good night.’”
The former “Today” show host, who just released a memoir, first shared the story in a 2014 segment of the NBC show. She had defended Cosby’s character at the time and said she was shocked to hear about sex assault allegations against him.
“This was the most admired man in America for years,” Gifford told People.
Cosby was sent to prison in 2018 after being found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee in his Pennsylvania home in 2004. The highly publicized trial, which became a precedent-setting moment for the #MeToo movement, featured a series of separate sex abuse claims by multiple women.
Gifford, 67, said she was “surprised” but didn’t “feel panicked” when Cosby supposedly tried to kiss her.
“He was not the first man during a multi-decade career that came on to me, and I’m just very grateful that I never let any of them take it any further than that,” she reportedly said.
Gifford revealed in 2017 that she was sexually harassed by an unnamed producer when she was 21. She said the perv masturbated in front of her after inviting her to his Los Angeles home under the guise that his office was under construction.
Her new book, “It’s Never Too Late,” was released Tuesday.
