Nicole Eggert Says She Contemplated Suicide During Alleged Abuse From Scott Baio
Nicole Eggert is opening up about a painful period in her life.
The actress filed a police report against her former Charles in Charge co-star, Scott Baio, on Tuesday, after publicly alleging that Baio sexually abused her for years, starting when she was 14 years old. Baio has previously denied Eggert's sexual abuse allegations, saying she is "provably wrong" and "deliberately lying." While Baio denied having a sexual relationship with Eggert when she was underage, he did say that the two had consensual sex “well after she turned 18."
ET spoke to Eggert on Wednesday in Los Angeles, where she alleged that their first sexual encounter happened when she was 14 years old, while Baio would have been 25.
"What's going through my mind is that it's my first sexual experience," she tells ET's Kevin Frazier. "I don't know what's going through everyone's minds. Like, 'Oh, is this strange? Whoa, what is that? Maybe this doesn't feel so bad?' And the thing is, for so long I hid it because I thought because I didn't fight back, and because he wasn't holding me down, that it made it OK -- that I was to blame as well."
"I think that's a message people really need to understand," she continues. "It's that he should have known better. He was the adult, I was the child. I had never been with a boy before. I had never been touched that way -- by anybody. And he played on my emotions, my hormones -- all of it."
Eggert says that when she was 15 years old, she contemplated killing herself.
"In those days I had moments of being so hurt and so upset, and even thoughts of ending my life," she says.
She describes what she calls a particularly low moment.
"I was 15 years old standing on the bridge over the L.A. River at Ventura and Vineland in Studio City, and I looked down at that dry river bed and I'm sobbing, I'm sobbing," she tells ET. "I'm sobbing and I looked at it, and I said to myself, 'It's not a legit bridge, you're not going to die, you're going to break a lot of bones and you're not even going to kill yourself. Get home.' You know, crying even harder, because, like, 'You idiot, what were you just thinking?' But you are lost, and hormones are going and raging, and just sexual hormones, you know? Growing hormones."
Eggert also claims that Baio began physically abusing her after she told him she wanted to date boys her own age.
"It started with shaming -- fat shaming me all the time," she claims. "[He told me to] stay away from craft service. You know, 'Everybody watch out! Nicole, don't go near craft service!' ... And then it became physical -- grabbing me by the hair, dragging me around, pushing me, tripping me."
Eggert now says the hardest part going public with her allegations is telling her daughters, 19-year-old Dilyn and 6-year-old Keegan.
"I have my youngest who is six years old ... I had to sit down and tell her why there were all these cameras outside of our house, and why people keep on asking me these questions," she says. "And I told her what happened to me -- not in grave detail -- but that it happened to me and I want her to know that ... if anybody even attempts anything like that, she knows that I will go to battle for her. And she knows I would never shame her, and she can see how I'm handling this, and that I would do the same exact thing for her."
Eggert says her teenage daugher has also been very supportive.
"I let her come on this journey with me, and she lives in New York, so she's come and watched and walked through this, and held my hand through this," she says. "She's been an amazing support system for me, and I think I've been a great example for her."
ET also spoke to Eggert's manager, David Weintraub. An LAPD spokesperson told ET on Wednesday that Robbery-Homicide detectives met with Eggert on Tuesday, and are investigating allegations that she made, confirming the allegations were against Baio.
"The investigation has begun and we plan on fully cooperating with the LAPD and giving them as much information from Nicole and our team as possible, but it has begun," Weintraub notes.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Baio tells ET that the actor is glad Eggert has gone to the police with her allegations. Baio has also previously denied Eggert's claim they had intercourse when she was 17, explaining that by her own admission in a previous interview, they had intercourse after the show was over -- the show ended in 1990, when Eggert was 18.
"We've been demanding since last year that Nicole Eggert bring her story to the authorities," Brian Glicklich, a spokesperson for Baio, said in a statement to ET on Wednesday in regard to the police report. "It's good that she finally has, even if it's part of a publicity campaign. Perhaps she can explain to them her ever-changing story."
“We are genuinely appalled that Nicole Eggert continues to treat the police and the district attorney as though they are part of her personal publicity campaign," Glicklich said in another statement. "The various and ever changing charges made by her and [Charles in Charge co-star] Alexander Polinsky are false and baseless. We will look forward to a speedy and thorough investigation by law enforcement.”
ET recently spoke with Baio following his interview with Good Morning America -- where he again vehemently denied Eggert's allegations -- and also had a message for Eggert.
"Stop. Just stop," he said. "Stop, because there are other people involved. Just stop changing your story. Just stop. That's all."
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