Julie Chen Reveals Having Surgery On her ‘Asian Eyes’

By Chris Ariens 

When Julie Chen was a local news reporter in Ohio she asked the news director if she could fill in as an anchor. Chen says the news director told her, “‘You will never be on this anchor desk, because you’re Chinese.’ He said ‘Let’s face it Julie, how relatable are you to our community? How big of an Asian community do we have in Dayton? On top of that because of your Asian eyes, I’ve noticed that when you’re on camera, you look disinterested and bored.'”

So rather than calling HR, Chen got some other advice. A bigtime agent pretty much told her the same thing.

“It felt like a dagger in my heart,” she says, “Because all of my life I wanted to be a network anchor.” She eventually did, on CBS’s “The Early Show.” And along the way, she married the boss, CBS Corp. chairman Les Moonves.

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Chen revealed all this on “The Talk” yesterday as the CBS daytime chat show returned for a new season with hosts revealing their secrets.

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