Bill Cosby Rape Accuser Barbara Bowman: ‘Why Did It Take 30 Years For People To Believe Me?’

Bill Cosby rape accuser Barbara Bowman is wondering why it took another man sharing her story before anyone would believe her.

Also, why 30 years?

In a recent commentary for the Washington Post, Bowman lays out the lurid, graphic details of what Bill Cosby allegedly did to her when she was a teenager.

“Over the years, I’ve struggled to get people to take my story seriously,” Bowman confessed. “So last month, when reporter Lycia Naff contacted me for an interview for the Daily Mail, I gave her a detailed account. I told her how Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times.”

Bowman said that in one case, she had blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at Cosby’s New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor her and discuss the entertainment industry.

“When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me,” she wrote.

“I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal. The final incident was in Atlantic City, where we had traveled for an industry event. I was staying in a separate bedroom of Cosby’s hotel suite, but he pinned me down in his own bed while I screamed for help. I’ll never forget the clinking of his belt buckle as he struggled to pull his pants off. I furiously tried to wrestle from his grasp until he eventually gave up, angrily called me ‘a baby’ and sent me home to Denver.”

A separate Bill Cosby rape allegation that Bowman shared with the Daily Mail was even more graphic.

“He turned out all the lights. It was completely pitch black. He laid me down on the couch and started caressing and touching me all over. Then he put my hand on his penis, covering it with his hand. He had me masturbate him. I couldn’t see what was going on. When it was over, I ran out of the room and threw up… It was so invasive and frightening and humiliating. There was no way I could tell my mother. I couldn’t even admit it to myself. I tried to convince myself that I’d imagined it. That it was a one-time thing, that it wouldn’t happen again. And I was paralyzed with fear.”

Bill Cosby rape allegations are nothing new. Over the years, there have been around 13, but it wasn’t until 2004 that they really started to pick up steam when a woman named Andrea Constand came forward.

This inspired Barbara Bowman to share her story as well and offer support to Constand, she said, noting that she believed the woman “because it happened to me, too,” in almost the exact same manner, where Cosby allegedly groomed a young girl to be an up and coming actress before taking advantage of them.

“Only after a man, Hannibal Buress, called Bill Cosby a rapist in a comedy act last month did the public outcry begin in earnest. The original video of Buress’s performance went viral. This week, Twitter turned against him, too, with a meme that emblazoned rape scenarios across pictures of his face,” she said.

Whether one believes the Bill Cosby rape allegations, Bowman’s question is an interesting one. How has Cosby gotten cushy press treatment for so long with more than a dozen women accusing him of sexual abuse?

Why has he not had to face these allegations in the public eye until now, and why did it take Buress to bring it all to a head?

The one time Bill Cosby responded to the rape allegations was in 2005, when he told a tabloid that “words and actions can be misinterpreted,” and that people were trying to “exploit” his celebrity status.

“I’m not saying that what I did was wrong, but I apologize to my loving wife, who has stood by my side for all these years, for any pain I have caused her,” he said. “These allegations have caused my family great emotional stress.”

Cosby did outright deny the allegations.

“Sometimes you try to help people and it backfires on you and then they try to take advantage of you,” he said.

Do you think the Bill Cosby rape allegations are a publicity stunt designed to exploit the comedian, or is there something to them?