CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment by his female ex-boss, Shelley Ross, who was the former executive producer at ABC and CBS at the time. Ross said that Cuomo had squeezed her butts in front of her husband at a bar in New York City. The shocking incident allegedly took place 16 years ago before Cuomo apologised to her for it in an email.
The incident came to light after Cuomo's ex-female boss in an op-ed for the New York Times wrote, "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."
Moreover, recalling the Cris Cuomo groping episode, Ross said that the anchor at ABC's Primetime Live 'with a kind of cocky arrogance' further went on to shamelessly say, "I can do this now that you're no longer my boss." Ross in her op-ed revealed that an hour after the gross event took place, Cuomo sent her an apology email for his behaviour. "Now that I think of it... I am ashamed," the subject of the cryptic email read as stated by Ross.
Cuomo's email also stated that his hearty greeting was only the result of being glad to see his ex-boss and referred to an incident of Christian Slater, who got arrested for a similar act. He expressed that he empathises with her husband not liking to see his wife being patted as such, according to her published piece.
"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," Ross said. She also said that by comparing the incident with Slater, the host of the nightly show Cuomo Prime Time was trying to legally defend himself.
"Never Thought Cuomo's Behavior Was Sexual," Says Ross
"I never thought that Mr Cuomo's behaviour 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," Ross said.
Meanwhile, the charges against the younger Cuomo comes just a month after his older brother Andrew Cuomo stepped down amid his own struggle with an accusation of sexual harassment. Last year, Chris Cuomo was caught naked in his wife's live yoga video, which Twitter users claimed to be his publicity stunt.
