Crime

Former Model Beverly Johnson Says She Forgives Bill Cosby For Allegedly Assaulting Her

Johnson has said that Cosby drugged and raped her in the mid-1980s, a claim Cosby has denied through his attorney

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Published on September 9, 2015 06:15 PM

Former model, Beverly Johnson, who has accused Bill Cosby of drugging her in the mid-1980s when she met him for an audition, says she has granted him forgiveness.

In an interview with Good Morning America Wednesday, Johnson was asked what she would say to Cosby today.

Johnson, 62, answered, “I forgive you.”

Johnson, who is one of more than 40 women who have come forward accusing Cosby, 78, of drugging and assaulting them, has openly said that “no one has the right to another’s body or sexuality.”

“I hope that the lesson is that rape and any form of sexual assault is wrong, that silencing women’s voices is wrong and that protecting a predator over the assaulted for the sake of protecting power is devastating,” Johnson previously said in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE.

In 2006, PEOPLE published a story on the allegations against Cosby that helped break open the scandal.

In an interview with PEOPLE earlier this year, Johnson said that she was changed by her experience.

“It’s changed my life in the way of how I feel about violence on woman, about what I can do,” she told PEOPLE. “This has given me a different purpose in life. It totally changed my life. It will forever be part of who I am.”

In an interview with Dr. Phil, model Chloe Goins, said that she’s still struggling after coming forward with her claim that she was sexually assaulted by Cosby in 2008.

“It’s been really hard, especially with coming out publicly,” Goins tells Dr. Phil in a preview of the episode. “Unfortunately, with these types of cases the victim gets really scrutinized and dug into. My life has been completely dug into by people, and it’s been a tough road.”

The alleged attacks claimed by other women go back as far as the 1960s.

“It makes me upset every time I think about it,” Goins told Dr. Phil. “It was a disgusting thing that happened to me, that happened to these other women, and I’ll never be able to fully grasp that or get over that.”

Cosby’s lawyer, Martin Singer, has stated that the allegations against the actor/comedian are unfounded.

Though Johnson is the first of Cosby’s accusers to publicly forgive him, she does share in the belief that these clams can lead to something worth discussing.

“I’m going to leave that to the justice department,” Johnson said in her GMA interview. “I just feel that he’s a lighting rod for a much bigger conversation and that conversation would be the rape culture in America.”