Beverly Johnson says Bill Cosby drugged her

Thursday, in an essay published online for Vanity Fair, supermodel Beverly Johnson alleges that Bill Cosby drugged her in the “mid-80s.”

Johnson is the latest of some 20 women who have recently come forward alleging Cosby committed criminal acts. She writes in Vanity Fair that her agent told her Cosby wanted her to audition for the Cosby Show.

Johnson was a famous supermodel, making history in the 70s as the first black woman to appear on the cover of Vogue.

In need of a “big break,” Johnson accepted the offer and met Cosby at his New York brownstone. Before the personal invitation to his home, she attended several Cosby Show tapings and visited his home once before with her daughter.

Johnson writes that “Looking back, that first invite from Cosby to his home seems like part of a perfectly laid out plan, a way to make me feel secure with him at all times.”

Cosby’s attorneys did not respond when Vanity Fair reached out to them about publishing Johnson’s story. Johnson said she knew she had been “drugged” by Cosby right away.

Cosby wanted Johnson to go through a number of scenes and suggested to the model to pretend to be drunk.

Yes, Johnson claims Cosby wanted her to act drunk for him.

She explains below:

As I readied myself to be the best drunk I could be, he offered me a cappuccino from the espresso machine. I told him I didn’t drink coffee that late in the afternoon because it made getting to sleep at night more difficult. He wouldn’t let it go. He insisted that his espresso machine was the best model on the market and promised I’d never tasted a cappuccino quite like this one. It’s nuts, I know, but it felt oddly inappropriate arguing with Bill Cosby so I took a few sips of the coffee just to appease him. Now let me explain this: I was a top model during the 70s, a period when drugs flowed at parties and photo shoots like bottled water at a health spa. I’d had my fun and experimented with my fair share of mood enhancers. I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I’d been drugged—and drugged good.

Johnson then writes her head became “woozy” and her speech began to “slur.” The room was spinning “nonstop,” Johnson claims.

She grew angry and disoriented, even calling the comedy legend a “motherf**ker.” Cosby, also angered, eventually pulled Johnson outside of his home and “shoved” her into a cab.

As for the question of “Why now?” Johnson writes the following:

[…] I reached the conclusion that the current attack on African-American men has absolutely nothing to do at all with Bill Cosby. He brought this on himself when he decided he had the right to have his way with who knows how many women over the last four decades. If anything, Cosby is distinguished from the majority of black men in this country because he could depend on the powers that be for support and protection. I had to use my voice as a sister, mother, and grandmother, and as a woman who knows that, according to the C.D.C., nearly one in five women has been sexually assaulted at some time in her life, and that women of color face an even higher attack rate.

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Read Johnson’s full essay on Vanity Fair here.