Allison Williams Delays Wedding Plans After Brian Williams' Suspension, Promises "You Can Trust" Her Father

"He has so much integrity," the Girls star says

By Zach Johnson Feb 19, 2015 2:10 PMTags
Brian Williams, Allison Williams, Celeb ParentsAndrew H. Walker/Getty Images

Allison Williams has broken her silence about Brian Williams' six-month suspension from NBC News. During a Q&A with Seth Meyers at 92Y in New York City Wednesday, the Girls actress defended her father and assured the audience that the 55-year-old journalist will work hard to regain viewers' trust.

"This has been a really hard time. We have also been very lucky, counting our blessings. We have our health. We have each other. It's been incredible to experience the outreach from people you love, family, friends, and then people we don't even know, strangers, just reaching out saying we want him back on TV," she said. "It's been tough, though. Obviously, toughest on my dad, who bears the full burden of responsibility for it." Despite Brian's admission that he was untruthful about being fired at in Iraq in 2003, Allison told Meyers that she's in her father's corner. "One thing the experience has not done is shake my trust and belief in him as a man. He's a really good man. He's an honest man. He's a truthful man. He has so much integrity. He cares so much about journalism. And yes, he's a really good dad," she said. "I know you can trust him because, as any good daughter does, I've tested him on that."

When Brian was in Iraq, Allison was in ninth grade and hoping that he would return home in time for the father-daughter dance. "As that date was coming, it didn't seem like he was going to make it like he had promised," the Peter Pan Live! star said. "And then a couple days before the dance I was so upset and I got a surprise call from Iraq from my dad and he asked me if I had a date to the dance. So, that's the kind of man he is, and I can't wait for him to be back on TV, and I know many of you guys feel that way."

Brian was suspended without pay on Feb. 10. Lester Holt is substituting on NBC Nightly News.

Between her work commitments and Brian's suspension, Allison confessed that she had to put wedding planning on hold. "It's been a very full year," Ricky Van Veen's fiancée, 26, said. "You sort of think, 'What could possibly come along that would make me not think about this?' And then I get Peter Pan and I think, 'Okay, I will think only about Neverland and then we'll go back to planning our wedding.' Then current events started happening, so that derailed it a little bit, but it has been this really beautiful through line in our lives. It's just something we haven't focused on, but, spoiler alert, we are excited!"

(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)