CNN anchor Chris Cuomo accused of sexual harassment by ex-ABC boss Shelley Ross
- The veteran TV news executive said Cuomo squeezed her buttocks while she was at a party with her husband in 2005
- Cuomo sent an email later saying he was ‘ashamed, and apologised to Ross and her husband
A veteran TV news executive said CNN anchor Chris Cuomo sexually harassed her by squeezing her buttocks at a party in 2005.
Shelley Ross said in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Friday that Chris Cuomo, who had formerly reported to her at ABC News, greeted her with a bear hug “while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock” while she was at a party with her husband.
Ross said Cuomo told her, “I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,” and she responded, “No you can’t,” pushing him off while stepping back to reveal her husband, who had witnessed the episode.
Cuomo sent an email soon afterward saying he was “ashamed.” He mentioned a celebrity who had been arrested for similar behaviour recently, and apologised to Ross and her husband.
Asked for comment, Cuomo told the Times, “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 apologised to her then, and I meant it.”