Billy Bush says infamous tape with Trump brought his daughter to tears

The TV personality spoke out in an interview with "GMA" anchor Robin Roberts.

ByABC News
May 22, 2017, 6:55 AM

— -- Television personality Billy Bush said that the lewd exchange from 2005 between him and Donald Trump that was caught on tape and released during the 2016 presidential campaign brought his teenage daughter to tears.

"There was a powerful moment — my now 16-year-old daughter called me ... and she was in tears," Bush, 45, told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts in his first television interview since the tape was released.

"She was really upset, and I said, 'Mary, it's, it's going to be OK. You know, don't worry,'" Bush said. "And she said, 'No. Why were you laughing at the things that he was saying on that bus? Why were you playing along with it, Dad? It wasn't funny.'

"I said, 'Mary, I am sorry. And there is no good answer for that.'"

In the 2005 video , released last October by The Washington Post, Trump, then the star of NBC's "The Apprentice," brags about his ability to grope women because he's "a star."

The conversation reportedly took place while Trump and Bush were arriving on the set of "Days of Our Lives" in 2005 for an "Access Hollywood" segment about the businessman's cameo on the soap opera.

Trump is also heard talking to Bush, then the host of "Access Hollywood," about how he tried to have an affair with a married woman and describing how he makes moves on women.

Bush can be heard laughing and later encouraging Trump to hug actress Arianne Zucker, at the time a "Days of Our Lives" star, whose appearance was discussed by Trump and Bush.

Trump dismissed the comments at the time as "locker room banter."

"I apologize if anyone was offended," he said in a statement.

The tape's release provoked a storm of criticism of Trump, who went on to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election just a few weeks later. In October, Bush was fired from his job as an anchor of the third hour of "Today."

Tune in to "Good Morning America" Wednesday, May 24, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET to watch Robin Roberts' full interview with Billy Bush.

ABC News' Morgan Winsor, Tom Liddy and Meghan Keneally contributed to this report.