14 DAY TRIAL // The “world’s first supermodel,” as she likes to call herself, Janice Dickinson, is going again on the record with her version of the events that happened on a night in 1982, when actor Bill Cosby drugged and raped her after inviting her to his house in Lake Tahoe, allegedly luring her there with the promise of a successful career.
Dickinson, who came forward with the shocking story last month, as more and more women were coming out with similar allegations of date-raping, sat down for a chat with CNN on this topic.
At the end of the interview, she broke down in tears and lamented that she didn’t know how to process all these feelings, as you can see in the video below.
Janice was young and naïve, Cosby took advantage of that
Dickinson tells CNN that, when she went to Cosby’s house, she wasn’t thinking that something this bad could ever happen to her, mostly because she trusted the man. So when she complained about menstrual cramps and he gave her a pill, even though she was fresh out of rehab, she didn’t stop to think whether that was suspicious or not.
She took the pill and started feeling weird from the start.
Throughout the interview, Dickinson tries to make it clear that she was relatively innocent of the ways of the industry, even though she’d been working in it for some time: she was this star-eyed model who wanted to branch out into acting and singing and who had been lured there with the promise of a solid start in these areas.
She had no reason to doubt Cosby’s motives in offering it to her because he seemed like someone with authority and a squeaky clean reputation.
Dickinson has proof to back up her claims
Dickinson knows that people will find it curious that she’s kept her silence for over 3 decades, only to come out with the story now, when more women are going on the record with their story of how Cosby raped them.
She also knows that people will doubt her words because so much time has passed since the alleged attack and she can’t offer irrefutable proof for it. Oh but she does, she tells CNN: on the night in question, she had her Polaroid with her. She was one of the few people to have a Polaroid then, she adds with pride.
Right before she blacked out, she snapped Cosby’s photo, sitting at a table in his bathrobe, drinking scotch. She hints that she might have even more photos from right before the attack, which would prove beyond a trace of doubt that she’s not lying about the rape.
Bill Cosby is a monster, she’s no longer afraid to tell her story
So then, why did she keep her silence for all these years, especially if she had the proof to back her story up? Janice says she was afraid to come clean: afraid that she’d lose her career, afraid because Cosby was a powerful man, afraid she’d become a mockery in showbiz.
“I remember being extremely angry that I had been violated – I remember feeling disgusted at him, but I was disgusted at myself,” she says of her reaction from after the rape.
To deal with the traumatizing experience, she compartmentalized it, stuffed it away, and let time slip over it. However, she insists, she remembers everything vividly and she’s willing to put herself on the line right now so that people finally learn the truth: Bill Cosby is a monster and a pig, and he deserves to be punished for what he did to her and to all those other women.
Right after the interview ends, with the cameras still rolling, Janice breaks down.
