Jaleel White Believes Ex-Mentor Bill Cosby Is 'Paying The Appropriate Price'

Updated September 7, 2021

Unless you were nerdy enough to recall that he was the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog during the '90s, chances are that you know Jaleel White for playing Steve Urkel in Family Matters.

But if time had turned out a little differently, White would have received his big break elsewhere. And that opportunity would end up having a significant effect on the relationships the budding actor would develop in life.

But as we've recently learned, there are some actions that he can't excuse no matter how close he may have been with the person doing them. So make no mistake, what White is about to say, he doesn't say lightly.

Before Family Matters was in the cards for White, he was originally supposed to be Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

Wikimedia Commons | William Morris Agency

As White told Vanity Fair, "Next thing you know, there was one more audition and that was supposed to be a formality at the network. And a little girl comes walking in, and I’m like—even at eight years old—'Who’s she?' And they’re like, 'She’s auditioning for Rudy, too.' So I’m like, 'Oh, it’s not as much of a formality as I thought.'"

Indeed, it wasn't as he soon found himself on the list of hopeful kids who were sent home in tears.

However, it seemed that White's relationship with Bill Cosby would only get stronger after this rejection occurred.

According to Entertainment Weekly, he told TV One's Uncensored that he would often have dinner and breakfast at Cosby's house and that Cosby took on a kind of mentoring role early on in White's career.

As he said, "I even ran into a rough patch, and he's directly responsible for why I ended up at William Morris Agency, which became an education unto itself."

In the years since Family Matters, however, that friendly relationship would not last.

As White said, "I actually had a bit of a falling out with Mr. Cosby. I kept that to myself."

And in some ways, he still is keeping that part of his life to himself as he didn't specify what drove a wedge between them.

But regardless of how their relationship blossomed and wilted, White sees no issue with Cosby's three-to-10-year prison sentence for sexual assault.

Wikimedia Commons | United States Navy, Mr. Scott King

And as he told Uncensored, the truth of Cosby's misconduct over the years had him look back with some discomfort and wonder how close he was to the situation.

In his words, "And you go back in time, and you realize how close you were to something, and you put yourself in rooms where you realize his wife wasn't there, that woman was probably there for that purpose."

As for the punishment Cosby now faces, he sees it simply as the consequence of Cosby's actions.

As White put it, "I think that's where we leave it: A revered man did a terrible thing, and he is paying the appropriate price."

h/t: Entertainment Weekly

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Jaleel White Believes Ex-Mentor Bill Cosby Is 'Paying The Appropriate Price'

Before *Family Matters* was in the cards for White, he was originally supposed to be Rudy Huxtable on *The Cosby Show*.

However, it seemed that White's relationship with Bill Cosby would only get stronger after this rejection occurred.

In the years since *Family Matters*, however, that friendly relationship would not last.

But regardless of how their relationship blossomed and wilted, White sees no issue with Cosby's three-to-10-year prison sentence for sexual assault.

Before Family Matters was in the cards for White, he was originally supposed to be Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

In the years since Family Matters, however, that friendly relationship would not last.