Shelley Ross, a former top TV news producer at ABC News and CBS News, has alleged in a New York Times opinion piece that Cuomo Prime Time host Chris Cuomo sexually harassed her when they both worked at ABC. (TVNewser)
Ross: “I was at [a] party with my husband, who sat behind me on an ottoman sipping his Diet Coke as I spoke with work friends. When 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,’ he said to me with a kind of cocky arrogance.” (NYT)
Cuomo sent an email shortly afterward saying he was “ashamed.” He mentioned a celebrity who had been arrested for similar behavior recently, and apologized to Ross and her husband. (NPR / AP)
Cuomo said in a statement provided to the Times shortly before publication: “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.” (The Daily Beast)
Cuomo hosted his CNN show Friday without addressing the Times essay by Ross. He instead devoted the hour to reports on the Arizona election audit, the Gabrielle Petito case and The View. (Deadline)