Chelsea Handler Has A Bill Cosby Story Of Her Own

While the weekly flood of new victims has tapered off to an end, the world is still justifiably furious with the formerly beloved TV father of The Cosby Show fame. Bill Cosby is accused of raping and assaulting dozens of women — publicly despite not ever being convicted legally — and, as a result, has gone from beloved and respected to feared and/or the punchline of many cringe-worthy jokes. Now comedian Chelsea Handler has a Cosby confession to share with the world, one that is, thankfully, not as horrific as the personal accounts brought forward by his numerous alleged victims in the last decade. It's still horrific in a way, but Handler instead had a "near miss," according to The Hollywood Reporter, that she didn't realize could have gone a lot worse until now.

"He tried to Cosby me. I was in Atlantic City playing, doing stand-up, and he was doing stand-up in Atlantic City in the same hotel, and at like three o'clock in the afternoon, someone from the hotel came down and said, 'Oh, you know, Mr. Cosby would really like to meet you up in his hotel suite,'" said Handler. "And I thought, 'That's really weird.' This was like ten years ago. And I said, That's really weird. I don't want to go alone. I go, 'I don't know him.'"

The simple story becomes horrifying when you start remember how many of the alleged victims' stories begin in this way, and how many of the alleged assaults took place in Cosby's hotel suite in one city or other. Perhaps nothing would have happened. Perhaps something would have happened. Thankfully, Handler never had to find out which it would have been had she gone alone. "So the three guys I was with — thank God these guys were with me. One was filming and one was like a producer — we were filming something. I brought them up with me to his room, and thank God I did, because now I know what would've happened if I went up there alone."

Handler's tale might have gone untold if not for a friend of hers. Since nothing happened, she had no reason to think of this incident in terms of the allegations the actor and comedian is facing. After all, her experience was nothing like those of the reported victims and it's quite likely that she never had another bizarre experience with Cosby outside of that one. However, as Handler goes on to say, "Then my friend texted me the other day saying, 'Do you remember that night we went up to, or that afternoon we went up to Bill Cosby's, and you were so freaked out you made us come with you?' And I said, 'Yeah,' and he said, 'Hello! You could've been one of his victims if we weren't there.' And I went, 'Oh my gosh … '"

Seeing these events in this new light has reinforced Handler's belief that Cosby is guilty of the allegations that so many women have brought against him. I can't even imagine the horror she must have felt when she realized with a start that she might have almost become one of the women victimized; that feeling of what could have been must make the stories of the actual alleged victims even more chilling for Handler. However, Cosby's official statement on the accusations as given via his lawyer remains the same:

Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment. He would like to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at age 77, he is doing his best work. There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives.

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