Nancy O’Dell addresses Trump’s comments about her

LOS ANGELES — “Entertainment Tonight” host Nancy O’Dell says women shouldn’t be objectified, even in the locker room.

On the entertainment news show Monday, O’Dell addressed crude, taped comments made about her by GOP presidential contender Donald Trump in 2005 and his response following their release last week.

Referring to a previous statement, O’Dell repeated her assertion that “there is no room for objectification of women, or anyone for that matter.” She then added, “not even in the locker room.”

During Sunday’s debate with Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, Trump dismissed his remarks to then-“Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush as “locker-room talk.”

The candidate apologized for the vulgar banter, which included his assertion that he tried and failed to sleep with a married woman he called “Nancy.”

“Access Hollywood” has identified O’Dell as the woman Trump referred to.

In the recording that was published Friday by The Washington Post and NBC News, Trump also said, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” adding, “Grab them by the p——. You can do anything.”

Under questioning by debate moderator Anderson Cooper, Trump denied groping women or kissing women without consent.

In her on-air remarks Monday, O’Dell said she’s been a journalist for more than two decades, and “it is my job to bring you news about others rather than turning the focus on myself.”

But the release of the tape that’s become a national story and part of the presidential race has “thrown me in the middle of the political arena of which I didn’t ask to be a part,” O’Dell said.

She used the opportunity to call for respect for all. Speaking as a mother, she said, children and especially young girls “need to know that their hard work, their achievements, their intelligence, their heart are most important.”

O’Dell, who did not refer to Trump by name in her remarks, thanked viewers for the many “kind words” she has received.

In her weekend statement, she said it was “disappointing to hear such objectification of women. The conversation needs to change because no female, no person, should be the subject of such crass comments, whether or not cameras are rolling.”

Trump was visiting a soap opera set when he and Bush were taped in a bawdy hot-mike conversation. Bush, now with NBC’s “Today,” has been suspended indefinitely from the job he started just two months ago.

“Today” Executive Producer Noah Oppenheim said in a memo Sunday that “there is simply no excuse for Billy’s language and behavior on that tape.”