Tony Award-winning actress Phylicia Rashad has broken her silence to defend her friend against claims by at least 20 women that they were sexually assaulted and/or drugged by comedian and actor Bill Cosby.

Rashad, who worked alongside the entertainer for 12 years on "The Cosby Show," called the claims ridiculous and threatening to Cosby's 50-year career.

"Forget these women," Rashad told Showbiz 411 in an exclusive interview. 

"What you're seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it's orchestrated. I don't know why or who's doing it, but it's the legacy. And it's a legacy that is so important to the culture."

The 66-year-old actress said the scandal was orchestrated to ruin Cosby.

"Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV," she insisted. "And it's worked. All his contracts have been cancelled.

"This show represented America to the outside world. This was the American family. And now you're seeing it being destroyed. Why?"

She also dismissed the idea that the Cosby's wife, Camille, knew about the violations. 

"This is a tough woman, a smart woman," Rashad said. "She's no pushover."

Although the claims of assault go back as far as the 1970s, the first woman came forward in 2005. Cosby settled that claim out of court, and has not been charged with a crime.

Last month, one of his accusers, Tamara Green, filed a defamation lawsuit against him. She claimed that statements made by Cosby's publicist, David Brokaw, and Cosby's then-attorney, Walter Phillips Jr., exposed her to public ridicule.

Green accused Cosby of drugging and assaulting her in 1975, and was one of the first to speak publicly about the alleged crimes. 

This week, two more accusers joined the defamation suit: Therese Serignese and Linda Traitz. The women said Cosby's attorney, Martin Singer, called them liars in the press after they separately came forward in November with sexual assault claims. 

Serignese said Cosby drugged and raped her in 1976, while Traitz said he tried to drug her and groped her in 1970.