Julie Chen Vows To Stand By Les Moonves Amid Harassment Claims: 'She Believes It's In His Past'
Julie Chen won’t be standing by her fellow Talk co-hosts this week, but she plans on standing by her man, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively, amid the sexual misconduct scandal that has forced her husband
Les Moonves to step down as the head of CBS.
“She’s told people close to her that she’s not going to leave him,” said a source.
“She believes it’s all part of his past and there’s nothing recent.”
Chen, 48, issued a statement on Monday saying she would be taking a brief hiatus from her daytime chat fest this week as the CBS fallout takes shape. “I am taking a few days off from The Talk to be with my family,” she noted. “I will be back soon and will see you Thursday night on Big Brother.”
As RadarOnline.com reported, CBS announced they are parting ways with the 68-year-old exec after 15 years at the network helm after being plagued by allegations of sexual harassment.
A total of 12 women claimed in articles published in The New Yorker that he abused his power by harassing or even attacking them.
One alleged victim, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, a now-retired TV executive who worked with Moonves in the 1980s, said she filed a police report late last year with the Los Angeles Police Department, accusing Moonves of “physically restraining her and forcing her to perform oral sex on him, and of exposing himself to her and violently throwing her against a wall in later incidents.”
Another alleged victim, Jessica Pallingston, a writer, claimed that Moonves “coerced her into performing oral sex on him when she worked as his temporary assistant, in the nineties, and that, after she repelled subsequent sexual advances, he became hostile, at one point calling her a ‘c**t.’ ”
When it first broke, others described “forcible touching or kissing during business meetings” and yet at the time the 48-year-old TV star supported her husband, calling him “a good man and a loving father, devoted husband and inspiring corporate leader.”
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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Chen, who’s been married to Moonves for 14 years, is worried her career will be collateral damage as her husband’s reputation goes up in flames: “Julie is talented, but her career is so tied to Les’ that if he gets fired,” said a source, “she’s in big trouble, too.”
In his own statement, Moonves calls the claims made against him “untrue allegations.”
“For the past 24 years it has been an incredible privilege to lead CBS’s renaissance and transformation into a leading global media company. The best part of this journey has been working alongside the dedicated and talented people in this company,” he says in part. “Untrue allegations from decades ago are now being made against me that are not consistent with who I am.”
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