Cindra Ladd, a former entertainment executive, claims in a first-person essay on the Huffington Post that she was raped by Bill Cosby.
Ladd first met Cosby in 1969 when she was 21 years old and working in New York City. Cosby was 32 and "one of the most likable and popular entertainers in the business." In her essay, Ladd recalls how she and Cosby became acquaintances, calling him a perfect gentleman.
One night, the two had plans to go to a movie. After complaining about a headache, Cosby offered her a capsule he said would get rid of the pain.
I asked a couple of times what it was. Each time he reassured me, asking, "Don't you trust me?" Of course I did. This was Bill Cosby.
For more than 45 years I have tried to recall exactly what happened that night. To this day it remains a blur. I have a vague recollection of feeling like I was floating while walking through Times Square and watching some kind of Japanese samurai movie with him. I don't remember where the theater was nor very much of the evening.
Ladd recalls waking up naked next to Cosby knowing he had sex with her. She said the only person she told at the time was her roommate, and did not discuss the incident with anyone for 36 years. She told her husband, film producer Alan Ladd Jr., whose works include Braveheart and Chariots of Fire, nine years ago.
The reason she chose to speak up now is because "the truth deserves to be known."
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.
This is the first time she has spoken publicly about the assault, and Ladd said it will be the last. She has no intention of doing any other interviews or to sue Cosby.