NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Cosby s daughter, Ensa Cosby, who came to her fathers defense last year against accusations that he had sexually assaulted numerous women, has died at age 44 from a chronic kidney disease, a family spokesman said on Monday.

Ensa Cosby, the second-youngest of the entertainers five children and the third of his four daughters, died from renal disease, according to the spokesman, Andrew Wyatt. But he declined to give further details about the circumstances of her death.

The Cosby Family thanks many people for their prayers for their beloved and beautiful Ensa, who recently died from renal disease, Wyatt said in a statement.

The celebrity news website TMZ.com reported that Cosbys daughter died on Friday night in Massachusetts.

The elder Cosby lost his son, Ennis, to gun violence more than a decade ago.

Ensa Cosby made headlines in May 2017 when she released a statement with her older sister, Erinn, on the popular radio show, The Breakfast Club, proclaiming their fathers innocence against the multiple rape allegations lodged against him.

The daughters said they were faithful listeners of the show and wanted to use it as a platform to criticize the medias portrayal of their father, who was best known for his television role as the wise, witty dad on the long-running situation comedy The Cosby Show.

The accusations against my father have been one-sided since the beginning, and when he tried to defend himself he was sued in civil court, Ensa said in an audio statement that was aired during the morning show. I strongly believe my father is innocent of the crimes alleged against him and I believe that racism has played a big role in all aspects of this scandal.

My father has been publicly lynched in the media, she added.

Cosby, 80, is scheduled to appear in a Pennsylvania court next week for a hearing on pretrial motions ahead of his scheduled retrial on April 2.

Cosbys son, Ennis, an educator who had been pursuing a doctoral degree at Columbia University, was shot to death in 1997 by a young Ukrainian immigrant in a botched robbery attempt after the entertainers son stopped by the side of a road just off a Los Angeles freeway to change a flat tire. He was 27 at the time.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)