Phylicia Rashad Files for Divorce

Friday, February 16th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Phylicia Rashad, best known for playing Bill Cosby's wife on the hugely successful ``The Cosby Show,'' is ending her real-life marriage to sportscaster Ahmad Rashad.

The 52-year-old actress has filed for divorce at Manhattan's Supreme Court on grounds of ``abandonment,'' according to a report in Thursday's Daily News.

However, the newspaper reported the split is apparently amicable. The couple has a 14-year-old daughter, Phylea.

Rashad, 51, was a star receiver for the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings before joining NBC as a sportscaster.

It was the third marriage for both Rashads.

The couple was introduced by Cosby.

He and Phylicia Rashad played husband and wife on two different sitcoms â€” NBC's ``The Cosby Show,'' the nation's most-watched TV show in the mid-'80s, and ``Cosby,'' which ran on CBS (1996-2000).

Ahmad Rashad proposed on national television on Thanksgiving Day in 1985.