Charlie Rose settles sexual harassment lawsuit after half a decade

Charlie Rose settled a sexual harassment suit with three former employees over the weekend.
The once-revered television news host was accused by ex-staffers Katherine Brooks Harris, Sydney McNeal and Yuqing “Chelsea” Wei of wide-scale sexual harassment in a 2018 lawsuit that has languished in New York Supreme Court for over half a decade.
The parties settled Sunday “with prejudice and without costs to any party”; news widely surfaced Wednesday. Other terms of the settlement have not been made public.
“This case is about workplace interactions,” the women in the case said in a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday after the settlement. “Through the process of years of litigation, the parties have come to better understand each others’ points of view. On reflection, and after having the benefit of discovery, we realize that different people could interpret the conduct in different ways, and therefore we have resolved the claims. We do not assign any bad motive or ill intent to Charlie Rose.”
The statement is a far cry from the original claims of the case which alleged a pattern of harassment and inappropriate behavior.
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“This case is about blatant and repeated sexual harassment committed by Charlie Rose, a 70+ year old powerful American television journalist and talk show host, against three junior female employees in their 20s, and subsequent unlawful retaliation including deplorable conduct,” the original complaint, which named Rose, his own company and his employer CBS as defendants.
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Brought at the height of the #MeToo movement, the lawsuit alleged that Rose during his time at CBS, harassed all three women with sexual advances, unwanted touching and suggestions that they should have sex with one another.
The lawsuit referenced a 2017 Washington Post article in which eight women came forward to accuse Rose of sexual misconduct. Alleging a pattern of abuse, the article described “striking commonalities in the accounts of the women,” who accused Rose of groping them, appearing naked in front of them and swinging back and forth “between fury and flattery,”
Shortly after the article was published, Rose was fired as the host of “CBS This Morning” and both Bloomberg TV and PBS canceled his interview show.
Charlie Rose’s former employerCBS knew of alleged misconduct, ‘Washington Post’ reports
“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that. though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings. even though I now realize I wasmistaken,” Rose responded with a statement to the Post at the time of the article’s publishing, prior to the lawsuit.
The following year the Post published another article, more than tripling the number of accusers and alleging CBS knew and did not act.
The original filing from Harris, McNeal and Wei also alleged retaliation after their stories went public, though the judge ultimately threw that part of the case out in 2019.
USA TODAY has reached out to CBS and attorneys for the women and Rose for comment.
Gina Riggi, Rose’s one-time makeup artist, has also sued the interviewer for sexual harassment. Filed in 2019, the case has not yet been resolved.
It alleges “a pattern of misogynistic, abusive, demeaning, embarrassing and degrading behavior directed both at Ms. Riggi and other female staff” during her tenure working on “The Charlie Rose Show” and “Charlie Rose: The Week.”
The suit claims Rose often “pressed himself against” and “groped” female staff members and targeted attractive young women hoping to enter the field of journalism. “Far from being an advocate for their careers, Mr. Rose treated them as sexual targets, using his power and influence to serve his personal desires,” lawyers for Riggi wrote.
While Rose, now 82, may have lost his seat at the major networks, he continues to interview subjects in videos posted to his website. Recent guests include The New York Times’ columnist Bret Stephens and sports journalist Bob Costas.