Billy Bush went from employed to fired at Immediately within the span of simply months in 2016 on account of his involvement in Donald Trump’s Entry Hollywood scandal. Now, almost 9 years later, Bush has opened up in regards to the emotional turmoil of that point.
“I did every little thing I might consider to maintain myself from leaping off the constructing,” he instructed Rob Lowe on a brand new episode of the actor’s Actually! podcast. “Rob, I used to be about to get an enormous paycheck, my first actually large paycheck. I’m at The Immediately Present. They nonetheless have cash. They’re the very last thing in linear tv with actual cash on the information facet. And I used to be like, ‘Wait! Wait!’ Bang, and proper again to the underside of the hill — or, let’s say, [midway] up the hill — after which it’s important to maintain going again up once more.”
In Might 2016, Bush was employed as a co-host of Immediately’s third hour, however that October, he was fired from the place after a 2005 recording from his time on Entry Hollywood resurfaced. In that recording, Bush might be heard laughing and joking round with Trump as the longer term U.S. president talked about kissing and groping girls with out their consent.
Bush beforehand mentioned the firing in a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I couldn’t put two ideas collectively,” he mentioned of the Entry Hollywood scandal. “Issues had been taking place method too quick.”
THR reported Bush spent that weekend in October 2016 “desperately making an attempt to save lots of his job” and that NBC Information initially deliberate to have Bush apologize on air the next Monday. “I’d have welcomed addressing the viewers,” Bush instructed the publication.
And in 2018, Bush elaborated on his mindset in a Individuals interview. “I used to be ashamed and embarrassed,” he mentioned. “After which I went by way of levels of grieving as a result of I misplaced my profession. For a person, that’s the final word degradation.”
The TV persona encountered one other setback inside months of his Immediately firing, separating from now-ex-wife Sydney Davis after almost 20 years of marriage.
“I used to be a happy-go-lucky man,” Bush instructed Individuals. “Every little thing goes nice, and I used to be like, ‘Hey, that is superior!’ After which, kaboom.”
Bush ultimately returned to TV in 2019 because the host of Additional. He introduced this Might he’ll go away the present after the top of the present thirty first season to concentrate on his Sizzling Mics podcast.