Directed b W. Kamau Bell, Showtime’s four-part docuseries, ‘We Need to Talk About Cosby,’ explores the life and career of the now-disgraced comedian and the several sexual assault allegations against him. Over the years, multiple women have claimed that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them.
Janice Dickinson, a successful model from the 1970s and 1980s, was one of the first women to come forward with her story in 2014. So, if you’re wondering what happened, we’ve got you covered.
Who is Janice Dickinson?
Janice Dickinson began her modeling career in the early 1970s after moving to New York City, New York. Over the next few years, she built up a steady body of work, eventually becoming one of the most well-recognized faces in the industry. By the 1980s, Janice was the face of several brands’ ad campaigns as well. In 2014, Janice said Bill Cosby had se****ly assaulted her when she was about 27 years old in 1982.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Janice said that she had met with Cosby through an agent for a potential role on ‘The Cosby Show.’ Later on, Cosby had asked Janice to come down to Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he was performing at the time.
There, they talked about expanding her career into singing, and she worked with Cosby’s musical director. After dinner, Janice said she complained of cramps, for which he allegedly gave her a pill. Soon, she began to feel disoriented.
Janice later said, “The next morning, I woke up, and I wasn’t wearing my pajamas, and I remembered before I passed out I had been sexually assaulted by this man.” In her testimony during Cosby’s trial in 2018, Janice went into more detail. According to her, she was “rendered motionless” in the hotel room, adding, “I didn’t consent to this. Here was ‘America’s Dad’ on top of me. A married man, father of five kids, on top of me. I was thinking how wrong it was. How very wrong it was.”
Cosby’s defense questioned Janice about the inconsistencies between her testimony and the description of the alleged incident in her memoir from 2002. While on the stand, she admitted that the ghostwriter took some liberties with her story and said, “It’s all a fabrication there because I wanted the paycheck for my kids.” Janice added that she didn’t detail the alleged sexual assault in her book because the publishing company’s legal department would have never let it go to print.
Where is Janice Dickinson Now?
Janice also talked about how the alleged incident affected her daily life. She said, “The harrowing memory of the rape continues to this day. I have reoccurring nightmares; I wake up in fear, I fear the dark. I struggle to discuss this even with my beloved husband of six years.” Apart from her modeling career, Janice has been a judge on ‘America’s Next Top Model’ and had her own reality series, ‘The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.’ In 2016, she revealed her breast cancer diagnosis. Today, she seems to live in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Dr. Robert Gerner.
