After first coming forward over the weekend of Jan. 26 with allegations she was sexually assaulted by Scott Baio when she was a minor, actor Nicole Eggert went into greater detail about those allegations during an interview with Megyn Kelly on her show Megyn Kelly Today.
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Eggert said the abuse started on the set of the show she and Baio both starred in, Charles in Charge, in 1986. She was just 14 years old at the time, while Baio was 25.
“He started expressing his love for me and talking about marriage and the future,” Eggert explained to Kelly, adding that things allegedly began just before she turned 15, when they “were at his house in his car in his garage, and he reached over and penetrated me with his finger.”
“I was very young. It was shocking,” Eggert said. “He was playing not only on my emotions, but my hormones and all of those things.”
https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/958343070285795328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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According to Eggert, Baio would manipulate her by telling her not to tell anyone or he could go to jail. He also reportedly told her they would all lose their jobs and the show would end. Eggert said the abuse continued until she was 17 (Baio contends, in his own version of events, that Eggert was 18 at the time) at which time the two began to have sex. Though Eggert said it was consensual, she was uncomfortable.
“I was a willing participant to an extent. There was a lot of manipulation that went into it. It wasn’t a ‘hold me down, rape me’ situation, but I was 17. […] I just wasn’t ready to tell my story. […] It was upsetting. It wasn’t a good experience at all. […] It was at my house in my spare bedroom. He laid down a towel and it happened there,” Eggert recalled. Following the sexual intercourse, Eggert said Baio’s attitude toward her changed, and he became cold.
https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/958341572902424576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Baio has adamantly denied the accusations, which Eggert first spoke about on Twitter, calling Baio a “creep.” Baio took to Facebook where he made a video attempting to dispel any and all of Eggert’s claims. “If you have a real claim, you go to the real people, not social media, where people like me get beat up,” Baio said in a Facebook Live video. He also said Eggert was the aggressor in the relationship, and he succumbed to her advances like any “red-blooded American” would.
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Meanwhile, other former Charles in Charge stars are supporting Eggert’s claims of Baio’s inappropriate behavior. Castmates Alexander Polinsky and Adam Carl have both said they recalled Baio acting inappropriately on set.
Eggert, along with her high-profile attorney Lisa Bloom, is exploring legal options and is considering filing a police report.
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