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Bill Cosby Biographer Mark Whitaker Admits He Was “Wrong” to Exclude Sexual Abuse Allegations

Bill Cosby biographer Mark Whitaker and Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby biographer Mark Whitaker said he was "wrong" about excluding the allegations.

Hindsight is 20/20 for Bill Cosby biographer Mark Whitaker. The journalist, 57, penned Cosby: His Life and Times, a story of the actor’s life, and famously left out the decades of sexual abuse allegations made against Cosby — a decision he is now questioning. 

Whitaker addressed his controversial move on Monday, Nov. 24, after being named in a New York Times column by famed media critic David Carr. In a piece entitled “Calling Out Bill Cosby’s Media Enablers, Including Myself,” Carr writes on the media and public’s delay in recognizing the alleged victims. 

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“Those in the know included Mark Whitaker,” Carr writes, “who did not find room in his almost-500-page biography, Cosby: His Life and Times, to address the accusations that Mr. Cosby had assaulted numerous women, at least four of whom had spoken on the record and by name in the past about what they say Mr. Cosby did to them.”

Though he has largely kept quiet on Cosby in recent weeks, Whitaker took to Twitter after Carr’s article published, addressing the ongoing scandal.

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Us 1034 Cover

“David you are right,” he tweeted. “I was wrong to not deal with the sexual assault charges against Cosby and pursue them more aggressively.”

Though the biography hit shelves this past September, Whitaker said he will continue to track the goings-on of the disgraced comedian, 77. There are now more than 16 women who have made claims of drugging, sexual abuse, and rape against The Cosby Show alum, who continues to deny the allegations through his legal team and chooses not to comment on the scandal. 

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“The new, never-before-heard claims from women who have come forward in the past two weeks with unsubstantiated, fantastical stories about things they say occurred 30, 40, or even 50 years ago have escalated far past the point of absurdity,” Cosby’s attorney Martin Singer said in a statement. “These brand new claims about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous, and it is completely illogical that so many people would have said nothing, done nothing, and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years.”

“I am following new developments and will address them at the appropriate time,” Whitaker wrote. “If true the stories are shocking and horrible.”

Read more about Cosby’s fall from grace in the new issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands Friday.

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