"The View" co-host Raven-Symoné unleashed a wave of controversy last week when she said she would not hire someone with a non-traditional name like "Watermelondrea." Keshia Knight Pulliam weighed in on her former "Cosby Show" co-star's comments during a conversation with HuffPost Live on Tuesday.
"I guess she wouldn't have hired me. I've got about the most ethnic name you can have!" Pulliam laughed.
While Raven-Symoné drew ire from social media users and later walked back her remarks on the issue, Pulliam said that everyone is "entitled to their opinions."
"On a show like 'The View,' that's what they do. They sit around and they have conflicting opinions and they argue their opinions, so at the end of the day, it's about being your authentic self," Pulliam said in a conversation about her film "Will to Love." "And if that is authentically her opinion, it's hers. It doesn't mean that I have to agree with it or you have to agree with it, or anyone else."
Pulliam also said Raven-Symoné faces added pressure from being in the public eye, where every move she makes is scrutinized.
"It's challenging having grown up the way she did. So from the other side of the coin, I empathize with her, where anything that she says and does is under the microscope," Pulliam told host Nancy Redd. "So I'm not here to judge her or to bash her or anything like that. Ultimately, Raven has to kind of find her own and do it her own way."
Watch the full HuffPost Live interview with "Will to Love" star Keshia Knight Pulliam here.
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