Billy Bush celebrated a milestone this week: the five year anniversary of the release of the Access Hollywood tape, a day he described in an Instagram post as “the worst day of my life.”
Most remember the Access Hollywood video for Donald Trump. Released in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential race between Trump and Hillary Clinton, the tape showed the reality television star boasting about groping women, or, in his words “grab[bing]” them “by the p*ssy.”
Throughout the tape, Bush could be heard giggling and occasionally offering cringeworthy words of support, like “Your girl’s hot as shit,” and “Yes! The Donald has scored. Whoah my man!”
Also: “How about a little hug for the Bushy, I just got off the bus? Here we go, here we go. Excellent.”
Many assumed the Access Hollywood tape would torpedo Trump’s campaign. Republican party leaders condemned him. Only Rudy Giuliani would appear on television to defend him. Trump even apologized.
His campaign didn’t implode, and he ended
Billy Bush was not so lucky. NBC News, where he had just been hired as a host of the Today show, fired him after its release.
A few years later he returned to television with a gig at Extra, a job he holds today. In an Instagram post Thursday, Bush criticized NBC News for firing him, accusing the network of sacrifice.
“Today is the 5 year anniversary of the worst day of my life,” he wrote. “[The] family that raised me professionally sacrificed me in an instant for their own political gain. Let’s be real. Ultimately, they lost because HE somehow won. I barely survived the cascade of anxiety and despair. It lasted years. I am stronger because of it today, a better more empathetic guy I hope.”
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“I field calls from people in need of counsel still all the time. I have a plan creatively to use this experience to help heal the culture. These are good things. I am deeply grateful for the man who felt it as deeply as I did, my dad…I know the heart ache took an awful toll on him. He is in heaven. I always stop on this day to feel it. But I end up thinking about the pain of others which means I’m in a much better place. Thank you Sydney, kids, Bob, Jill,