CBS News, PBS, and Bloomberg LP suspended broadcaster and talk show host Charlie Rose Monday following reports that he sexually harassed eight women who were employed, or wanted to be employed, on his PBS show.
The sexual misconduct allegations include unwanted sexual advances, groping breasts or genital areas, and lewd phone calls, according to a report by The Washington Post.
The women, who ranged in age from 21 to 37 at the time of the alleged misconduct, worked or wanted to work at the “Charlie Rose” show from the late 1990s until 2011.
Reah Bravo, for example, worked for Rose’s PBS show starting in 2007 as an intern and then as associate producer. She told The Post about having to endure unwanted sexual advances at his private estate and while traveling with him in cars and planes.
Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, who worked as an assistant to Rose in the mid-2000s, described numerous instances where Rose appeared naked in front of her at one of his New York City residences. He also repeatedly called the then-21-year-old to discuss his fantasies of her swimming naked in the pool.
Godfrey-Ryan informed Rose’s longtime executive producer Yvette Vega about the lewd calls.
“I explained how he inappropriately spoke to me during those time,” Godfrey-Ryan said. “She would just shrug and just say, ‘That’s just Charlie being Charlie.’”
In a statement, Rose apologized to the women, but said he did not believe all the allegations to be accurate. He also excused his behavior by claiming he always felt he was “pursuing shared feelings.”
“I have learned a great deal as a result of these events, and I hope others will too,” the statement said. “All of us, including me, are coming to a newer and deeper recognition of the pain caused by conduct in the past and have come to a profound new respect for women and their lives.”