Scott Baio Says Nicole Eggert's Claims He Assaulted Her Have Affected His Career

"You can't go after my wife and my kid," Scott Baio said about Nicole Eggert

Published on August 2, 2018 05:28 PM

Scott Baio claimed that Nicole Eggert accused him of assault to “relaunch her own career” — and now he’s alleging that those same claims have negatively affected his own profession.

“Do you think anybody wants to hire me? With this hanging over me? It’s crazy,” Baio told PEOPLE after a press conference held Thursday. “They know if they hire me a barrage of people who agree with her — hopefully not anymore — will start attacking the network, producers or the show. And they don’t want that kind of blowback.”

Despite the claims, the actor doesn’t believe his Hollywood success has been completely sabotaged.

“I don’t think it is over. I haven’t been working because I didn’t feel like working. I don’t think it is over. I think this will help considerably. I think once people realize it was all a fairy tale I think they will realize that, hey, a lot of women are for real, and this hurts women that are for real. It hurts them badly,” he said.

In January, Eggert, 46, accused her former Charles in Charge costar Baio, 57, of molesting her beginning at age 14. In February, Baio was also accused by Alexander Polinsky, another one of his costars on the sitcom, of sexual harassment and abuse. Baio has adamantly denied the allegations.

Although the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has rejected the sexual molestation claims against Baio because too many years have passed since the alleged incidents, he is still fighting to clear his name in the public.

“It has affected my wife more than me,” said Baio of his wife Renee Sloan. “I wanted to ignore all of this because I thought it was crazy talk. And rightfully so I said, ‘no we have got to fight this.’ It is part of the Me Too [movement] but I don’t want to be part of the Me Too because I didn’t do anything.”

“It is a very emotional thing. It is a daily thing. You don’t want to be called these names and you don’t want to be called these names in a social situation, on social media. I have a child,” said Baio, who shares 10-year-old daughter Bailey Baio with Sloan. “I don’t want to read this s—.”

nicole-eggert — Bobby Bank/Getty; Amy Graves/WireImage

As Baio attempts to move forward from these claims, the possibility of ever speaking with Eggert again is now in the past.

“You can’t go after my wife and my kid,” said Baio.

In a statement released via his spokesperson in June, Baio told PEOPLE, “Nicole Eggert dedicated herself to destroying my reputation and harming my family, and she has failed. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s conclusion to their investigation of her ever-changing stories marks the end of a sad chapter. Along the way, Eggert has defamed and harassed my family, friends, my wife’s charitable foundation, the families of the children that foundation helps, and many others. It’s hard to imagine anyone taking her seriously again.”

“For the last several months, my advisors have conducted their own investigation, which is well documented and was presented to the police and District Attorney,” he continued.

Baio contends, related to his internal report, “It showed that Nicole Eggert’s statements were part of a plan created long before her police report, with the intent of relaunching her own career. To reiterate: her false charges were conceived in advance for personal gain. We also presented multiple witness statements who knew Eggert well at the time the show was made, and presented an entirely different portrait of her behavior and motivations for her false charges against me. Unlike Nicole Eggert, most claims of sexual assault and harassment are honest, and my heart goes out to those who have been harmed. As bad as Nicole Eggert’s actions against me were, she has hurt them even more if they are doubted for even one moment because of her untrue allegations. I hope that does not happen, and I will do my best to support them.”

On Thursday, Baio claimed he took five polygraph tests that prove he did not assault Eggert.

However, according to the American Psychological Association, “most psychologists and other scientists agree that there is little basis for the validity of polygraph tests,” and courts “have repeatedly rejected the use of polygraph evidence because of its inherent unreliability.”