Rashad, 73, is an American actress and singer.
She is best known for playing the role of Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.
Rashad was also the first black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, which she won for her role in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun.
The actress has starred in other plays such as Into the Woods, Jelly’s Last Jam, Gem of the Ocean, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
As of May 2021, Rashad is the dean of Howard University’s fine arts college.
In light of Cosby’s release from prison, Rashad showed her support for her former co-star, tweeting: “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”
This is not the first time Rashad defended Cosby amid his legal trouble.
In 2015, she clarified a statement she was quoted for saying to “forget those women” in reference to the women that had come forward against the actor.
Rashad told ABC News at the time: “That was a misquote, that is not what I said.
“What I said is this is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy.”
On June 30, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s sex assault conviction after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged for allegedly drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the ruling bars any retrial in the case.
Charges were filed against Cosby in late 2015 – just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
He was convicted in 2018 at his second trial – after a first trial ended in a hung jury.
The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial when the jury deadlocked.
However, the judge then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.
Cosby had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Constand.
In May, Cosby was denied parole after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison.
During the conviction, the court deemed the elderly inmate a “sexually violent predator” for posing an “imminent safety risk to women.”
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt called the parole board decision “appalling.”
Who is Phylicia Rashad married to?
Rashad was previously married to dentist William Lancelot Bowles, Jr.
The couple had one son, William Lancelot Bowles III born in 1973.
Rashad and Bowles Jr divorced in 1975 and she married musician Victor Willis three years later.
They divorced in 1982 and she remarried former NFL wide receiver and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad in 1985.
Rashad and Ahmad have one daughter, Condola Phylea Rashad who was born in 1986.
The couple ultimately divorced in 2001.
What did Rashad say in her letter to Howard Students?
After an optimistic reaction to Cosby’s prison release, Rashad has backtracked on her comments in a letter penned to Howard University students.
The Howard dean, wrote: “My remarks were in no way directed towards survivors of sexual assault.
