Bill Cosby met his future wife Camille while he was performing stand up in Washington D. C. in the early 60’s. Camille Olivia Hanks was born in 1945 in Washington D. C. to Guy and Catherine Hanks. The shy Camille was a 19-year-old student majoring in psychology at the University of Maryland. Cosby, on the other hand, was a high school dropout who had earned his equivalency in the Navy three years earlier and who, at 26, was tending bar and starting to make a career of stand-up comedy. They met on a blind date. Bill has described meeting Camille as being “struck by a thunderbolt of pure loveliness.”
They got married on January 25, 1964, and had five children, Erika, Erin, Ennis, Evin and Ensa. Ennis, their only son was murdered in 1997.
We all know about the success Bill Cosby has had, and Camille has been a quiet but big part of it. She has been business manager for her husband, and oversees all financial, philanthropic and staffing matters. She is also president of COC Productions, a film production company, and C&J Productions, a stage production company.
In the 1970s, the Cosbys moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, and once several of her children were in school Camille decided to return as well. By 1980, she had earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts. In 1992, Camille completed her Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts
She is a very private person and rarely gives interviews. Although she remans in the backround she is very much in charge.
Camille stood by her husband when it came out that he had an affair in the 70’s. “All old personal negative issues between Bill and me were resolved years ago. We are a united couple,” Back in 1997, Camille Cosby said in a statement released by her husband’s publicist. “What occurred 23 years ago is not important to me except for the current issue of extortion.”
Well, she and Bill will soon be celebrating a Golden Wedding Anniversary, and we salute them for staying together, a loving and united couple.
