Billy Bush still can’t shake the aftermath of that tape. The TV host, 46, took to Instagram on the two-year anniversary of the release of his now-infamous Access Hollywood recording with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“Two years ago today, my life went from order to chaos in a dramatic instant,” Bush wrote on Sunday, October 7. “I accounted for my small part, while the President and my employer walked away and still haven’t accounted for their actions. These past couple years have been character building to say the least – anxiety attacks, fits of rage, feelings of betrayal and abandonment – and I have concluded that I am NOT extraordinary. Terrible things can happen at any moment to ANYONE.”
On a more positive note, the former Today show cohost wrote that he feels “grateful to know adversity as intimately as I do, and to have developed more empathy, humility and resilience” in the wake of the scandal.
“To know you can laugh even in the darkest hour is a blessing. Especially at yourself,” he continued. “I am grateful to God and my family for true love and support, and to all of you for your kindness. I have an idea. Let’s stop tolerating this escalating war on flaws and the obliteration of people for things we all do. … We are humans and thus fallible. Let’s take better care of each other.”
Alongside the message, Bush shared a funny photo of himself on the set of Today in October 2016, hours before The Washington Post released the tape that turned his career upside down. Bush wrote, “@hodakotb and producers dressed me in man spanx. I remember us all hysterically laughing. I still wear them. Shhh.”
In the 2005 recording, Trump, 72, bragged to the news anchor about groping women without their consent. “I just start kissing them,” the former Celebrity Apprentice host said. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything! Grab them by the p–sy.”
NBC News fired Bush a week after the tape made headlines. Trump called the conversation “locker-room talk,” and was elected president a month later.
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