Scott Baio took for Facebook on Saturday, January 27, to deny his Charles in Charge costar Nicole Eggert‘s claims that he molested her when she was a minor.
The former Baywatch beauty, 46, accused Baio of sexual misconduct in a series of tweets on Saturday, writing, “Ask @scottbaio what happened in his garage at his house when I was a minor. Creep,” she tweeted in response to a joke about the Happy Days star and his support for President Donald Trump.
Ask @scottbaio what happened in his garage at his house when I was a minor. Creep. https://t.co/YrQydBKd0a
— Nicole Eggert (@NicoleEggert) January 27, 2018
She then accused the Joanie Loves Chachi star of digitally penetrating her, starting at the age of 14. In subsequent replied to Twitter commenters, she said she was a “molested child” who “covered up” the alleged abuse for years, writing that she was “14, 15, 16 and 17” when the alleged incidents occurred.
The pair costarred on the sitcom from 1984 to 1990, with Baio playing college student Charles, who looked after a group of kids including Eggert’s character, Jamie.
Baio’s wife, Renee, tweeted a response to Eggert, saying that his legal team had served Eggert with two cease-and-desist letters, before the actor took to Facebook to slam what he said were Eggert’s “100% lies.”
In the Facebook live video filmed by his wife, Baio sat at a desk and said that his “reputation was being damaged” and that what he was being accused of was “horrible.”
He acknowledged that he and Eggert did have sex but claimed that it was consensual and that she would have been at least 18, or possibly 19 or 20, at the time of their encounter.
“I remember her calling me and asking me to come over and coming in my house one time, and seducing me,” he said. “Any normal heterosexual, red-blooded American guy, the outcome would have been the same.”
He said that when Eggert’s claims first came up in 2012 and 2013, she was promoting three reality shows and he “kept [his] mouth shut” because false allegations like that eventually go away. But he said that she “just won’t let them go away.”
The accusations resurfaced in 2017, and Baio help up two letters that he and his legal team sent to Eggert and their Charles in Charge costar Alexander Polinsky when, he said, they “decided to team up against” him. Baio said that he told them to go to the police if they had legitimate claims, but said that “they chose not to.”
In the video, Baio said that Eggert was his “best friend” and was a friend of his wife’s but that now, all of a sudden he is “a bogeyman.”
“The problem with almost all he said-she said cases is they’re he said-she said. Now, go prove it or disprove it,” he said. The real problem with this is people with legitimate claims aren’t taken seriously — and that’s too bad.”
