Nicole Eggert Details Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Scott Baio to Megyn Kelly

After her accusations were shelved by the Dr. Oz show, Nicole Eggert is detailing her claims of [...]

By Libby Birk

After her accusations were shelved by the Dr. Oz show, Nicole Eggert is detailing her claims of sexual misconduct against her Charlie in Charge co-star and director Scott Baio.

Eggert appeared on NBC's Megyn Kelly Today Tuesday to discuss her claims against Baio. Eggert says that Baio molested her from the ages of 14 to 17, while Baio maintains that they had a consensual sexual relationship, but only when she was 18.

"I was very young and it was shocking. I had never experienced anything like that before either," Eggert told Kelly.

The 46-year-old actress told Kelly that Baio, who would have been 26 at the time, immediately "took to me and befriended me and earned my trust" when Charles in Charge started filming in 1986, when Eggert was 14 years old.

"And then he started expressing his love for me and marriage in the future," she said, fighting back tears. "Before my 15th birthday we were at his house, in his car, in his garage and he reached over and he penetrated me with his finger."

Eggert says that's when the sexual abuse started.

"He was playing not only on my emotions, but also my hormones," Eggert told Kelly. "The issue with him is that he was our boss. He also was telling me, 'You can't tell anybody, this is illegal, I'll go to jail, the show will be over, everybody will be sued, you'll be out of a job, you'll ruin everybody's life.' And it's scary. That's intimidating, especially when you're that young."

Eggert chalked up timeline disputes (her account initially detailed that sexual intercourse happened when she was 17, but Baio said her admission that sex started after filming was over meant she would have had to have been 18) to the fact that she was initially trying to protect the show.

"My truth is that I wasn't ready to tell my story. For me it was always protecting the show and protecting that whole legacy that nothing happened there," she said. "That was my delusion and my cover-up always."

Eggert added that she covered up the abuse for her entire life.

In disputing an interview she gave to Yahoo! about "weird rumors" between her and Baio being false, in which she said that they became close friends, Eggert told Kelly that "if I could go back to a younger Nicole, I would tell her that she doesn't have to be ashamed."

"Shame plays such a strong voice...I didn't want anybody to look at me and think, 'Oh, [she's a] victim."

Eggert went on to add that although she was not an unwilling participant in the sexual activity when she was 17, that the experience was "upsetting."

"It wasn't a good experience," she said. "It was at my house, in my spare bedroom. He laid down a towel and it happened there. That's the god's honest truth."

0comments
Start the Conversation

of