Melania Trump told Anderson Cooper Monday on CNN that Billy Bush "egged on" Donald Trump into "boy talk" in the now-infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape where Trump can be heard talking about non consensually groping and kissing women.

"I said to my husband that, you know, the language is inappropriate, it's not acceptable," Melania Trump told Cooper when he asked her what her reaction was to the tape posted by The Washington Post earlier this month.

"I was surprised," she said, "because that is not the man that I know."

"I wonder if they even knew the mic was on," Melania Trump continued.

She goes to characterize the conversation as "boy talk" that was instigated by Bush, who got Donald Trump to say "dirty and bad stuff."

Melania Trump said she had never heard Donald Trump talk like that.

"I heard many different stuff, boys talk," said Melania Trump in a video clip of the interview tweeted by CNN. "The boys, the way they talk, when they grow up and they want to sometimes show each other 'oh this and that' and talking about about the girls."

She added, "But yeah, I was surprised, of course."

At the time the Access Hollywood tape was recorded, Billy Bush was 34 years old and Donald Trump was 59.

The full interview is set to air tonight on CNN.

You can watch the clip here:

Melania Trump says her husband was egged on by Billy Bush when he made sexually aggressive remarks in a 2005 tape https://t.co/p0mCRSCTRx — CNN (@CNN) October 17, 2016

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker