Rosie O'Donnell was hardly surprised when sexual assault allegations about Bill Cosby first surfaced years ago — in fact, she claims there was an incident backstage at her '90 and early aughts talk show that made her staff uncomfortable.
While speaking to Andy Cohen on Sunday, Rosie was asked if she had any insight into the imprisoned comedian, given that he appeared on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" several times throughout its six-year run.
"I'm gonna tell you this story about what happened to a staff member on our show," she said. "Very tall, like 6 foot tall, larger woman, very great producer. She was assigned to do his Mystery Guest, he was our mystery guest."
Rosie — who reveals she always knew the mystery guest's identity ahead of time but feigned surprise — said the producer was prepping Cosby for his appearance, claiming she wouldn't know he was the guest.
According to Rosie, he allegedly told the producer, "All [Rosie] has to do is put her hand right here, and he put his hand near his penis, and she'll know it's me.'"
The producer "started to cry and got up and left," Rosie said, adding that a male producer had to come in and speak to Cosby about the alleged behavior.
"They didn't tell me about it until after the show," she said. "I was one of those people who was not surprised by the charges against him."
Rosie, who also previously co-hosted "The View," said she tried to bring up the allegations on female-fronted show, but was told no.
"Every time I tried to bring it up, it became a little fight," she said.
Cosby is currently serving a three to 10 year sentence at the SCI Phoenix prison facility for drugging and sexually assaulting onetime friend Andrea Constand in his home 16 years ago. At his high-profile trial, several women testified that he did similar things to them over the years.
Following Rosie's allegation against Cosby, his rep fought back.
"Here's the multi-million dollar question: Why Now?," he said in a statement to TooFab. "The Rosie O'Donnell Show first episode aired in 1996 and the show ended in 2002 but now she waits (24) years later to accuse Mr. Cosby of making lewd comments to a female producer. This is just another attempt for a well-known celebrity like Rosie O'Donnell and many others to create false allegations about Mr. Cosby, in-order to gain attention for themselves and their new projects that are not doing well."