Kevin Clash — the Elmo puppeteer who was caught up in an ugly, underage sex-charge scandal this week — will not be returning to work right away.
“Kevin has asked for additional time to put this ordeal behind him, which we totally understand,” officials at “Sesame Street” said yesterday.
Clash, who took a leave of absence from the famed children’s TV show on Monday after allegations that he’d been sexually involved with a 16-year-old boy first hit the news, was exonerated Tuesday night when his accuser — now 23 — recanted.
The show said he’d asked for the time off to fight the allegations.
But yesterday morning — even after the unnamed accuser admitted the affair with Clash was “an adult consensual relationship” — the kids’ star said he was not ready to go back to work right away.
Clash admitted from early on that he’d had a sexual relationship with his accuser but denied that the young man was underage at the time.
Sesame Workshop, which produces the show, said it had “not entered into any agreement or paid any money in connection with this matter.” But Clash’s personal publicist yesterday declined to answer questions about a settlement.