Jaleel White was featured on the May 10 episode of Uncensored on TVOne to detail some of his experiences as an actor and portraying Steve Urkel on the 90s sitcom Family Matters. One of the topics he covered was his past relationship with the now-disgraced Bill Cosby.
White was almost cast as Cosby’s youngest son on The Cosby Show. Instead, the decision was made to cast Keisha Knight Pulliam in the role of Rudy, the youngest daughter of Dr. Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable.
However, that wasn’t the end of White’s interactions with Bill.
“I fostered a relationship with Mr. Cosby, separate and apart,” the actor said.
He also revealed that in a particularly rough patch in his career, Bill Cosby used his star power to get him on with the William Morris Agency, which was once touted as the first great Hollywood agency and was the longest-running before a merger.
But, it’s no surprise that after Cosby was exposed for engaging in sexually predatory behavior, up to and including rape, Jaleel White had no problem recollecting certain events in a newer paradigm.
Reflecting on moments that he spent time with the former television icon, he said, “You go back in time, and you realize how close you were to something, and you put yourself in rooms where you realize his wife wasn’t there. That woman was probably there for that purpose,” White said.
Their relationship ended as the accusations against Cosby mounted, and White declined to give the details of that final conflict citing the upbringing that taught him to respect his elders. However, White was very matter-of-fact about his feelings on where Cosby is today.
“A revered man did a terrible thing, and he is paying the appropriate price.”
Cosby was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison in 2018.
