Scott Baio insists he didn’t sexually abuse co-star Nicole Eggert when she was 14

Scott Baio said Wednesday that “absolutely nothing” happened between him and his former “Charles in Charge” co-star, Nicole Eggert, who has accused him of repeatedly sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.

In an interview with Amy Robach of “Good Morning America,” the actor asserted that with so many people on the sitcom set — teachers, parents, family, crew — “how any of this could have happened is absolutely impossible.”

The show ran from 1984 to 1990. Baio played Charles, a college student who was a caretaker/nanny for the family he lived with. Eggert played Jamie, one of the family’s children. Baio is 12 years older than her.

Her allegations came to light in a tweet on Saturday that she wrote responding to someone else mocking Baio’s support for President Donald Trump.

“Ask @scottbaio what happened in his garage at his house when I was a minor. Creep,” Eggert wrote.

The next day on his Facebook page, Baio posted a video in which he said he chose not to respond to claims Eggert first made against him in 2012 and 2013.

“I kept my mouth shut because usually when false claims in the past have been made against me they just go away. But for some reason she will not let this one go away,” he said in the video.

Baio acknowledged, as he did on “Good Morning America,” that he and Eggert had consensual sex one time. He says she was 18 at the time. She says she was 17, younger than the age of consent in the state of California.

In a Tuesday interview on “Megyn Kelly Today,” Eggert accused Baio of repeatedly molesting her while she was a minor. She said she hid the alleged abuse to protect the show. Later in her career she appeared on “Baywatch.”

“The Dr. Oz Show” was set to broadcast Eggert’s allegations on Wednesday. Host Mehmet Oz told Page Six TV he had initially decided not to air the interview. But he changed his mind after vetting the story and seeing the Twitter war about the allegations over the weekend.

“My truth is that I wasn’t ready to tell my story. And for me it was always protecting the show and protecting the legacy that nothing happened there,” Eggert told Kelly.

“That was my delusion, and that was my cover-up always. And that’s not the first time I covered it up. I did it my whole life.”

Eggert said Baio first touched her inappropriately when she was 14.

“He immediately took to me and befriended me and earned my trust, and then he started expressing his love for me and… talking about marriage in the future,” Eggert said of when she began working with Baio.

“And then I was still 14, before my 15th birthday, we were at his house in his car in his garage, and he reached over and he penetrated me with his finger, and that is when the sexual touching and abuse started after that.”

She said Baio warned her not to tell.

“He also was telling me, ‘You can’t tell anybody. This is illegal. I’ll go to jail. The show will be over. Everybody will be sued,’ you know. ‘You’ll be out of a job. You’ll ruin everyone’s life.’ And it’s scary,” Eggert said.

Baio asserted again on “Good Morning America” that Eggert was 18 or even older when they had consensual sex.

He referenced a 2013 interview Eggert did with Nik Richie of TheDirty.com in which she said she had sex with Baio after “Charles in Charge,” when she would have been 18 or older, Baio said.

Richie, who shares a manager with Eggert, said in a statement to Kelly that Eggert broke down afterward.

“Nicole was distraught after the interview and off air she was an emotional wreck,” Richie said in his statement. “She told me it was much worse than she described on air.”

When Robach repeated Eggert’s assertion that she felt she had to lie about what was going on to protect the show, Baio shot back.

As soon as Eggert’s allegation that she was underage when they had sex “was proven to be 100 percent false,” he said, she came up with a new story about something happening between them once a week for years.

“I’m trying to figure out which times she’s lying and which time she’s not lying because her story seems to change quite a bit. And I can’t keep up with it, quite honestly,” Baio said.

“What happened with you and Nicole when she was 14, 15, 16?” Robach asked.

“Absolutely nothing,” Baio said.

He said “Charles in Charge” was one of the most “fun things I’ve ever done” and called Eggert a “talented girl.”

“Everybody liked each other, everybody got along,” he said.

Robach: “Nothing inappropriate?”

Baio: “It was impossible. Because .. a child on a set, you’re either in school or you’re on set.

Robach: “You were never alone with her?”

Baio: “No. Unless I was in a scene with her. ... never. It’s impossible.”

Robach: “You never saw her off the set?”

Baio: “Off the set? I saw her in the studio a lot, yeah, off the set.”

Robach: “She mentioned your garage in one of her tweets ...”

Baio: “I have no idea what that means. I have no idea. You just can’t keep making up different things.”

Eggert told Kelly that Baio’s on-set behavior toward her included “a lot of groping, a lot of fondling, a lot of pulling me on his lap, trying to sneak kisses in the back, which other cast members saw.”

Robach told Baio that another “Charles in Charge” cast member, Alexander Polinsky, who played Eggert’s brother on the show, has said he witnessed “inappropriate cuddling” between him and Eggert on set.

Actor Adam Carl, who reportedly made one appearance on the show, tweeted at Eggert over the weekend, writing: “When I worked on Charles in Charge in ‘88, I sat with you while you cried about that abusive a**hole. I know you’re telling the truth and I’m so glad to see you speaking out.”

“Are they lying, too,” Robach asked Baio.

“I don’t know what they’re saying. I have no idea. I don’t know why they’re saying it,” he said.

“There are so many people on that set. Nobody said anything until ... and by the way, Nicole and I were friends after our only sexual encounter where she, she, aggressively sought me out because she wanted me to be her first so she would be good for her boyfriend, those are her words.”

“She seduced you. and you stand by by that?” Robach asked.

Absolutely, Baio said.

“You weren’t attracted to her, you didn’t seek her out?” Robach asked.

“Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” he said.

Baio has suggested that Eggert go to the police with her allegations.

On Tuesday, Eggert told Kelly that Baio “might just get what he wishes for,” but said she hasn’t decided what to do.

Baio told Robach he’s not concerned “over something I didn’t do. And rather than take your case to social media, where people tend to beat up people like me, why not do it through the proper channels ... because you put allegations like that and it becomes like wildfire.”

He said the allegations are not only affecting his reputation but also his wife and 10-year-old daughter who “does not need to be hearing about this from friends at school, these false allegations.

“Her job is not to defend me. My job is to defend my daughter. Her job is to be 10-years-old, and that’s why this has got to stop.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Scott Baio insists he didn’t sexually abuse co-star Nicole Eggert when she was 14."