Billy Bush opened up to Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts about the aftermath of the infamous Access Hollywood tape that leaked in October. Watch it above.
In a clip from the interview that aired on GMA on Monday, May 22, Roberts, 56, asked Bush, 45, what it was like to go home and face his wife, Sydney Davis, and his three daughters, Josie, Mary and Lillie, after the 2005 tape resurfaced.
“The initial moments were total chaos,” Bush said. “The paparazzi were never interested in me before, and now they’re outside the gate and ready to go. But once we settled and got to connect, there was a powerful moment — my now 16-year-old daughter [Mary] called me and she was in tears. She was really upset.”
Bush recalled the tough conversation he had with his daughter. “I said, ‘Mary, it’s going to be OK. You know, don’t worry.’ And she said, ‘No, why were you laughing at the things that he was saying on that bus? Why were you playing along with that, dad? It wasn’t funny,’” he said. “I said, ‘Mary, I am sorry, and there is no good answer for that.'”
In the tape, listeners heard Bush engaging in what some considered a lewd, misogynistic conversation with Donald Trump. Bush apologized, but was fired from the Today show shortly after the incident. Trump later called the conversation “locker room talk.”
Bush previously broke his silence about the shocking tape in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, which published on Sunday, May 21. “I am not grateful for the moment,” he said. “But I’m grateful for what I’ve gotten out of it. I’m grateful that it hit me all the way to my core.”
Roberts’ full interview with Bush airs on Good Morning America Tuesday, May 23.
