Cindra Ladd, wife of Hollywood producer Alan Ladd, has come forward with her own tale of sexual assault at the hand of Bill Cosby.
In a recent piece published by Huffington Post, Cindra Ladd detailed her encounter with Cosby. Her story had shocking similarities to those told by other women in recent months.
“I was a 21-year-old single woman in the world’s most exciting city. He was a 32-year-old internationally known comedian and television star, one of the most likable and popular entertainers in the business. He asked for my number and I gave it to him.”
“We began hanging out, took in a movie, watched television and ate pizza and hot dogs in my apartment with my roommate,” she wrote. “He was married to his current wife [Camille Cosby] and he acted like a perfect gentleman who didn’t come on to either of us.”
Then came the night that, according to Ladd, she received what so many other women before have recounted — a pill from Bill Cosby.
“One night we were going out to a movie,” she wrote. “We agreed to meet at an apartment that he said belonged to a friend of his. I had a terrible headache but didn’t want to cancel the evening. He told me he had a miracle cure his doctor had given him that would get rid of the headache. He went into another room and came back with a capsule. I asked a couple of times what it was. Each time he reassured me, asking, ‘Don’t you trust me?’ Of course I did. This was Bill Cosby.”
Cindra Ladd said she woke the next morning with only vague memories of the night before.
“What I do recall, vividly and clearly, is waking up the next morning nude in the bed of his friend’s apartment and seeing Cosby wearing a white terrycloth bathrobe and acting as if there was nothing unusual. It was obvious to me that he had had sex with me. I was horrified, embarrassed and ashamed. There was a mirror above the bed, which shocked me further.”
“It never occurred to me to go to the police,” she said. “It was a different time and ‘date rape’ was a concept that didn’t exist. I just kept asking myself over and over in disbelief why this had happened to me. Other than my roommate, I did not discuss that night with anyone for 36 years.”
Some will ask why Cindra Ladd is coming forward now. She addresses that in a very straightforward manner.
“This is the first time I have chosen to speak out about that night. It is also the last time I intend to address it publicly. I have no plans to sue, I don’t want or need money. I have no plans for a press conference or for doing any interviews. So why speak out at all and why now? The simple answer is that it’s the right thing to do. The truth deserves to be known.”
While Cindra Ladd’s account of the incident is shocking enough, there is an insult added to the alleged injury.
“I have crossed paths with Cosby only once, when my husband, a highly successful Oscar-winning film executive and producer, introduced me to him. I was shaking, wondering if he would recognize me by my unusual first name. His reaction spoke volumes. To Bill Cosby, I was just another stranger.”
BLOG: Bill Cosby assaulted me in 1969 http://t.co/GfY2I4T5Wh pic.twitter.com/vZdPw1l8Vj
— HuffPost Canada (@HuffPostCanada) January 27, 2015