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A New Cosby Accuser Answers The Question: 'What Took Them So Long?'
Producer Alan Ladd Jr. receives a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2007 with guests (L-R) Mel Brooks, Paul Mazursky, wife and director Cindra Ladd, producer John Goldwyn and Ian La Frenais. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Sadly, news of yet another woman coming forward to say that Bill Cosby drugged and raped them is no longer shocking though it's still horrific. But the latest woman to come forward—who has seen the public respond to a couple dozen accusations—has decided to answer the question of why she didn't say anything and why she's speaking now.
Cindra Ladd, a former film exec and wife of "Blade Runner" producer Alan Ladd Jr., wrote a piece for the Huffington Post explaining what happened. It was 1969. He was a big star, she was 21. She says that Cosby drugged her with a "miracle drug" that he offered up when she complained she had a headache. She asked what was in it and he responded "Don't you trust me?" She did.
Ladd says that her recollection of what happened next is blurry, but she later woke up nude in a terrycloth robe in the apartment of his friend. There was a mirror above the bed, and she knew he had had sex with her. Horrified, she cried on the way home. She told a roommate and no one else until some other people started coming forward three decades later. Believe it or not, she says she watched The Cosby Show and was a fan of it at its zenith.
Ladd answers the question so many other victims have gotten:
So why speak out at all and why now? The simple answer is that it's the right thing to do. The truth deserves to be known. As I write this, more than 20 women have come forward, many with stories that are remarkably similar to mine. In response to these brave women, I have read comments like, "What took them so long?" and "What are they after now"? I would ask these people to remember that up until relatively recently, prosecuting rape was a "he said/she said" proposition where the victim was blamed for having worn "suggestive clothing" or questioned as to why she went somewhere with her rapist. When this happened to me, the idea of drugging someone and raping them was almost fantastical. It was years before "date rape" drugs made the news, but it was a perfect modus operandi for a predator, rendering his victim unconscious or so incapacitated as to be unable to clearly answer police questions about the incident. After having done a lot of work on myself, I realize that we are only as sick as the secrets we keep. Once those secrets are spoken aloud, even if to just one person, they lose their power. I no longer feel the shame that kept me silent. Yes, I could have told my story years ago, and in hindsight I probably should have. It's time now that my voice be added and to finally pull the curtain back from this dark moment in my life.
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