CNN’s Chris Cuomo Accused Of Sexually Harassing Former Boss As She Posts Copy Of Email He Sent Apologizing
CNN’s Chris Cuomo just got some bad news from a former boss. A former ABC executive producer just accused Chris Cuomo of sexually harassing her at a 2005 work party. Shelley Ross says creepy Cuomo grabbed her butt at the party in front of her husband and coworkers to later try to spin it by calling it a “hearty greeting.”
Shelley Ross is a veteran TV journalist who spilled the beans about what Cuomo did at an Upper West Side bar in a New York Times op-ed today.
She said Cuomo sent her an email after the incident saying that he was “ashamed” before trying to spin his behavior. Ross said an email, dated June 1, 2005, from Cuomo has the subject line: “Now that I think of it…I am ashamed.”
The email body said:
“Though my hearty greeting was a function of being glad to see you…Christian Slater got arrested for a (kind of) similar act (though borne of an alleged negative intent, unlike my own)…
“And as a husband I can empathize with not liking to see my wife patted as such.
“So pass along my apology to your very good and noble husband…
“And I apologize to you as well, for ever putting you in such a position.
“Next time, I will remember the lesson, no matter how happy I am to see you.”
Ross wrote in The Times:
“I was at the party with my husband, who sat behind me on an ottoman sipping his Diet Coke as I spoke with work friends.
“When Mr Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock.
“’I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss.
“No you can’t,” I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range. We quickly left.
“Mr Cuomo may say this is a sincere apology.
“I’ve always seen it as an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability.
“I never thought that Mr. Cuomo’s behavior was sexual in nature.
“Whether he understood it at the time or not, his form of sexual harassment was a hostile act meant to diminish and belittle his female former boss in front of the staff,” she wrote.
Cuomo issued a statement saying: “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature.
“It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC.
“I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”
Chris Cuomo accused of sexually harassing former boss' at 2005 party https://t.co/0dkQaCwQJI pic.twitter.com/rGrPBGosz9
— New York Post (@nypost) September 24, 2021
Chris Cuomo’s former boss says he sexually harassed her and posts the copy of the email he sent apologizing for it. https://t.co/XJJbE2eW8d
— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 24, 2021