At the height of Bill Cosby’s career, he arguably was the biggest TV star in the world. Much beloved at the time for his incredible standup comedy and The Cosby Show, there was a time when Bill was often called America’s dad.
Years after the height of Bill’s career, his legacy was tarnished forever after roughly 60 women came forward to reveal what Cosby had done to them. As a result of those revelations, Bill arguably had the biggest fall from grace of any celebrity and he even spent time behind bars.
After news of the revelations about Bill came to light, there was a lot of interest in how his former co-star Phylicia Rashad would react to the situation. Similarly, people were curious if The Cosby Show’s former child stars were going to support Bill, especially since some of them were wrapped up in controversies of their own.
While it makes sense that people who spent years watching The Cosby Show closely associate Bill and his former co-stars, there are people that he is closer to. With that in mind, it begs an obvious question, how have Bill’s kids reacted to their father’s scandal?
For anyone who doesn’t remember the height of The Cosby Show’s success, it is hard to explain how popular the sitcom was. Seemingly beloved by just about everyone The Cosby Show was the definition of the tagline Must See TV at the time.
Anytime a current show becomes a fraction as popular as The Cosby Show was, the series’ stars find their personal lives in the tabloids. With that in mind, it seems like a no-brainer that Bill Cosby’s family would have been all over the media back when The Cosby Show was so huge.
While Bill’s wife Camille Cosby has appeared by his side at some events, the actor’s family has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. Perhaps that explains why Bill’s eldest daughter Erika Cosby has remained silent about the scandal that has engulfed her family.
Unlike Erika, there is no doubt about why one of Bill’s other kids hasn’t reacted to the scandal that has forever tarnished his legacy. Tragically, the reason why Bill’s son Ennis Cosby hasn’t gotten involved in the scandal is a tragedy.
Born in 1969, Ennis should still have a long life ahead of him, but that sadly isn’t the case. In 1997, the Cosby family’s life suffered a tragedy that nobody should be forced to experience when Ennis was the victim of a random crime.
When Ennis was only 27 years old, he was on California’s Interstate 405 in Los Angeles trying to change a tire on his car. Out of nowhere, Ennis was approached by 18-year-old Mikhail Markhasev who demanded that he hand over money.
According to reports, the robber felt Ennis took too long trying to retrieve the money, so he took his life. At the time Ennis passed away, he was studying to be a special education teacher at Columbia University Teachers College
Born in 1976, Evin Cosby grew up to graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology and then she went into business as a luxury boutique shop owner. Sadly, that boutique which was called PB & Caviar has gone out of business, and it is unclear what she is up to now aside from raising her children.
However, one thing that is very clear about Evin is how she reacted to her father’s scandal. In 2017, Evin provided a statement to Black Press USA defending her father in which she railed against the things people were saying about Bill.
“The public persecution of my dad, my kids’ grandfather, and the cruelty of the media and those who speak out branding my father a [criminal] without ever knowing the truth and who shame our family and our friends for defending my dad, makes all of this so much worse for my family and my children.”
Even continued, “When people are so quick to cast hate and make accusations of horrific violence against my dad, they are callous in their carelessness about the harm they are causing to others.”
Later in the same statement, Evin wrote that her father “loves and respects women” and brought up how good of a parent he was. On top of that, Evin argued that everyone was rushing to assume her father’s guilt.
“We get all sorts of mixed-up messages in our society. We are told that we have fundamental rights to be innocent until proven guilty. But, if enough people think you are a bad person, you are branded a bad person and the media just reinforces that. My dad, like anyone in this country, deserves to be treated fairly under the law.”
Born in 1973, Ensa Cosby was Bill Cosby’s second-youngest child. A mostly private person, very little is known about Ensa outside the fact that she was married to a business person named Martin McLean and the couple didn’t have any kids. Sadly, Ensa passed away on February 23, 2018, at 44 years old from renal disease.
Unlike Ensa, Bill Cosby’s second-oldest child Erinn Cosby who was born in 1966 found herself in the spotlight in the past. When Erinn was still 23 years old, she made headlines when she publicly accused Mike Tyson of forcing himself on her.
Less than a year before Ensa’s passing, she and Erinn gave statements in unison to Power 105.1’s Breakfast Club about their father’s scandal. In those two statements, Erinn and Ensa defended their father unreservedly.
In her statement, Ensa wrote that her father was being “publicly lynched in the media”, professed his innocence, and blamed what was happening on racism. “[Bill] is innocent of the crimes alleged against him and I believe that racism has played a big role in all aspects of this scandal.”
Just like Ensa, Erinn’s statement also attempted to reframe the scandal that had engulfed her father. However, in Erinn’s case, she focused more on how the media was profiting off the controversy while destroying Bill’s career.
“[Bill’s legacy] “has been tarnished and his livelihood taken from him, yet during this now two-year media frenzy, my father and my family’s plight has become a money maker for many trying to capitalize at his expense.”