Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2993

Tonight's special guest is Victoria Valentino from Altadena, California, an author, a sexual assault awareness activist, and one of the many survivors of the sexual abuse and trauma caused by Bill Cosby. "No one wants to get famous for being sexually assaulted," she says. "But sometimes, it's not about you. Sometimes, it's about finally telling the truth." Victoria became the sixteenth woman to come forward and one of the five women interviewed in a Washington Post piece published on November 22, 2014. A year later, New York Magazine published their blockbuster issue that blew the lid off the Cosby story, 'Cosby: The Women - An Unwelcome Sisterhood'. The magazine cover has become iconic, depicting 35 of the survivors who were willing to tell their own stories. Since then, Victoria has been in demand not only to retell her shocking story of violent rape by one of America's most powerful celebrities but to also offer her viewpoint on his motives and modus operandi. Now, she is featured in Showtime's compelling new four-part series, 'We Need to Talk About Cosby' by W. Kamau Bell in which he expertly chronicles the performer's meteoric rise to the top along with his criminal timeline. Victoria's memoir, 'Dirty Diamonds: The Repurposed Life of a Playboy Icon and Cosby Survivor' will be out soon. It is not a story that is solely a retelling of the Cosby experience. Her life story as a survivor of childhood abuse, domestic abuse, multiple rapes as a young girl, made her the easy target for the man who would make her Playboy's Miss September 1963.