On Sunday, Les Moonves resigned from the CBS CEO position. He had “weathered the storm” of the New Yorker’s first exposé this summer, which detailed several instances of sexual harassment and abuse towards women working in various capacities for CBS. He had denied everything and his wife, Julie Chen, stood by him. Then the New Yorker dropped the second exposé, detailing even more instances of sexual harassment and assault. Once again Moonves denied everything, but he was still forced out, and he resigned in disgrace. He’ll probably still get part of the exit package he was already negotiating though. On Monday’s episode of The Talk – which is CBS’s daily talk show – Julie Chen didn’t show up. And now it sounds like she’s taking a leave of absence.
Julie Chen announced Monday she’s taking some time off from CBS’ “The Talk,” a day after her husband, Les Moonves, resigned as chairman of the network amid a fresh wave of sexual misconduct allegations.
“I am taking a few days off from The Talk to be with my family,” Chen said in a statement to Deadline.com. “I will be back soon and will see you Thursday night on Big Brother.”
Chen was absent from “The Talk” Monday, while her co-hosts addressed the scandal on air.
“As you all know, Julie’s husband is in the news, and she’s taking off time to be with her family … It’s very embarrassing and upsetting to have to talk about her husband, but we do,” Sharon Osbourne said, per Variety. Osbourne said she was asked to make a statement in support of Moonves after six women accused him of sexual misconduct last month — but with six more women speaking out in a story published Sunday, it’s clear to her he has “a problem.”
“After … more women have come out these stories that are so similar, the pattern is so similar, that for me, he’s not been convicted of any crime but obviously the man has a problem,” Osbourne said.
Osbourne said she was particularly affected by new accusations by TV executive Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, who alleges that Moonves had her blacklisted from the industry after he sexually and physically assaulted her and she then spurned his further advances.
“Her story just broke my heart. It really broke my heart,” Osbourne said, according to Deadline. “Phyllis said, ‘Who would believe me? I’m a nothing and this man is everything.’”
It bugs me that so many women – CBS-employed women – were like “oh we don’t have enough information” when the first Ronan Farrow piece came out. Several women put it all on the line to go on the record with Farrow, only to have their stories waved off. I guess the threshold for “believing women” is when there’s a half-dozen or more? As for Julie Chen… well, it’s not her fault that her husband is a predator. But it’s also good that she’s stepping away from The Talk for a time.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Why isn’t she taking a leave of absence from her marriage to a predator? This is the second round of accusations. Continuing to stay says nothing good about her.
Cosby’s wife and Weinstein’s wife didn’t exactly run from the sinking ship either…not sure what’s up with that
Hold on, I thought Weinstein’s wife divorced him.
Yeah, but it took a while, she sort of turned a blind eye for a while
She lied for him on the talk when it comes to the issue of Janet, so she is hiding.
All of the allegations date back to pre-Julie years. They were married in 2004 and the accusations are from the 1980’s and 1990’s
The best reason to take a leave of absence is to consult divorce attorneys.
The first round of accusations were events from before they were married, if I’m remembering correctly. He acknowledged that he had been unprofessional in the past. So when she stood by him this summer I figured she was abiding by her marriage vows and she considered him reformed.
We’re the new women who came forward this week related to events that took place after they were married?
“Abiding by her marriage vows” – why would it matter if this took place before or after he was married? “Unprofessional behavior” is okay if it were before they got married? I certainly wouldn’t have considered her to be breaking any vows if she’d left him after the earlier accusations came out…sorry, just something about the phrase “abiding by her marriage vows” is squicking me out.
Killjoy- I guess I’m thinking if I found out now that my husband did inappropriate things before we were married, that I’d stick by my “for better or for worse” vow if I believed he was reformed. Of course there are limits to what behavior I’d forgive, but I hope you see my point. I’m trying to see it from her point of view. She may be thinking it was before they were married, he admitted he was inappropriate, and maybe she was choosing the side of the man she married. I just don’t think it’s fair that people are judging her harshly for not automatically leaving him.
First, Julie isn’t responsible for her husband’s bad deeds. BUT….Julie wasn’t concerned about him abiding by his vows to his previous wife’s when she started dating him (considering he was still married). Julie Chen was happy to turn a blind eye until it affected her. Now that her husband doesn’t run the network, let’s see how long she keeps her job.
I’m LOLing @sime commenter on here that were vilify in Serena Williams (in the SW thread) for loosing her temper at the white ump and together with some were equally calling for Serena to be PUNISHED and yet same posters are on here supporting the idea that Julie Chen should stick with the sex predator and honor some marriage vows! !
Lol, Masamf! +1
Regarding the comment about Julie and Moonves dating while he was still married, I am pretty sure he was separated from his wife for YEARS and YEARS before he got involved with Chen. They just didn’t have any reason to divorce and make it official until he wanted to marry Julie Chen. It wasn’t an affair behind the wife’s back, and the relationship didn’t break up or even overlap the marriage, except in the most literal legal sense of “marriage.”
I’m not defending either of them, but I used to think that Moonves and Chen had an affair, too, so I read up on it and it wasn’t really true.
Okay, I misunderstood, but I blame bad writing. The article said “his estranged wife of 24 years.” That literally means they were estranged for 24 years. Misplaced modifiers are a thing, folks! He started dating Chen in 2003, filed for divorce in 2003, and married Chen in 2004 after the divorce became final.
You don’t know what is going on in that home. She could be quietly planning a divorce. She stepped away to be with her kids. Maybe it is not as crystal clear to her as it is to others. She has more information than is being reported, I’m sure. How about waiting to see what a Judge says before automatically saying this guy is guilty. He could be innocent. But to say she isn’t doing what you think she is doing is nuts. This is her life and she needs to decide for herself what to do. There are children to protect from the media blasts.
Yes, it’s not her fault but she should step away for good. How much money, and fame, does she need????
Why should she step away because a man behaved badly? If she loses a career she worked hard for because of disgusting behavior by a man, wouldn’t that just make her another of his victims? I don’t think it’s fair to assume she knew all of this happened – perhaps time will tell on that.
In the meantime I think it’s fair for her to take a little time to regroup and decide what’s next her HER career. Also, it’s not like she’s taking a prolonged absence, she’ll be back on The Talk and Big Brother on Thursday.
How hard did she really work though? She had a pretty open affair with the married Moonves, and then he left his wife and any job she got after that was because she was Mrs. Moonves. That’s why they were all at CBS.
I don’t think she has to step away, but I also don’t think she’s this person who spent her life working hard for what she has. Personally, I would step away from The Talk because that show is too personal. I would not appear on it again. But I’d stay with Big Brother. Just my opinion.
She’d maybe hang onto her career if she did divorce him. Staying with a creepy predator, that she basically married for career enhancement when he was powerful, isn’t a good look.
Moonves’ marriage to Chen and her career success afterwards validates the claims of his victims that he punishes women who reject his advances, and rewards women who accept them. He made his wife a big star, giving her multiple shows. We know exactly what kind of “work” he rewarded women for.
I guess I think that she should because her work with CBS is inextricably linked to her husband’s. She got The Talk and Big Brother at CBS because of him and benefitted from his abusive practices. I don’t have a high opinion of her separate from this situation.
It’s likely she didn’t know the extent of her husband’s violence but she had to have known that he had a prediliction for crushing anyone who got in his way and she seemed to have no problem with it as long as it benefitted her. I think that she is complicit through tolerating that type of behavior and supporting it (for example, like the attempted decimation of Janet Jackson’s career after the Superbowl incident). TO BE CLEAR, I don’t think that she was responsible for her husband’s multiple acts of rape and assault, but I think that he is a garbage person apart from them and I think that it was shitty that she gaslit the first group of women who came forward to accuse her husband.
@Renee2: I agree with you 100%.
Julie Chen has always seemed a bit smug, to me. I don’t think she’d have the opportunities save for her husband.
I rarely watch The Talk but when I see it I always think she’s there because of LM.
(I wish they’d dump her ass from Big Brother. She’s inept as the host. They should bring in Derrick Levasseur as the host for next season.)
@ Renee2, you said it better than I did upthread. She made a public pronouncement of her support of him when the first wave of accusations became public. She doubled down & it backfired in her face. Don’t get me started on how he decimated Janet Jackson. So, like you, I won’t be a Julie Chen supporter or allow her to play the martyr.
I’m with both of you. I will never forget or forgive the treatment of Janet Jackson by LM.
I recently saw a clip from The Talk, on Twitter, where it was obvious that JC did not like JJ, and was not happy for her to be on the show. It was especially obvious because the other women were very excited at the prospect. She lied and said JJ never apologized and then said she didn’t know anything about what Janet said, how does she know Janet didn’t apologize if she doesn’t know what she said? She showed her hand with that BS. She is definitely complicite.
Look, Julie Chen cheated with Mounves, she subsequently vilified the women that came out and told their stories about how Mounves sexually assaulted these women, JC can go on a long hike for all I care.
Yep. Complicity is something often excused in the past. Not anymore I hope.
She needs to decide to either divorce him and try to keep a career or stand by her rapist husband and disappear with him. She can’t have both. He should be jailed for what he’s done and anything but outright condemnation of his behaviour is complicity at this point. It’s too bad that having an affair with and later marrying the boss didn’t work out as she thought but those are the breaks. It was no secret that he put the moves on women when she hooked up with him while he was still married with the first wife. The question is whether or not it was public knowledge that many of these encounters were not consensual. He was still a gross abuser of power taking full advantage of the casting couch and she was ok with that. No pity for her here.
For all these comments about how she didn’t know or she should not have to do this. Look to her lies, yes lies when the ladies were discussing Janet before she was on the show. Julie knew and did not care and made sure the black woman knew her place because the apology did not please her husband.
I never liked Julie, so, bye.
*High five*
And wasn’t Julie his side-piece so her saying he was a ‘moral person’ fell flat to me.
Bye bye!
Yes Sharona, yes she was. It was a reason that why they never were really seen together for awhile when they finally got together. She didn’t stick it out to not get the ring.
Clearly you don’t like her as you aren’t being objective,why is she to blame when her husband was the ceo of the channel?
She was a newscaster who had an affair with the married big boss..after which she became the CBS celeb who showed up on everything..they’ll end up remaining insanely wealthy and insulated from it all.
I watch the Talk & I’ve come to actually like Julie & I do feel bad for her & her kid.Prayers to her,& all the victims in the situation.
Did you like her when she covered up for her husband after he tried to ruin her career.
All of these wives, Julie included, have heard the rumors about their husbands for years, and they knew the truth (although in Camille Cosby’s case, she may not have wanted to admit it to herself). They know their husbands are dogs. But, depending on their own careers/portfolios, they may have lots of reasons for staying in the marriage. Rationalization can be a powerful thing.
Maybe she knew he had other partners but I don’t think that means she knew he was making unwanted advances or damaging the careers of his victims.
Maybe she (and Weinstein’s and Cosby’s wives) agreed to an open marriage. That would be her choice and none of our business.
Come on now, you are comparing a open marriage (which involves consent from all parties involved) to what this dude did. When people are coming up to you saying that your partner is harassing or blacklisting people, you take notice and don’t call it flirting.
Tiffany – what I’m saying is maybe she told her husband she doesn’t mind if he has side pieces. That doesn’t mean she knew or was complicit in him making unwanted advances toward coworkers and them blacklisting them when he was rejected.
Sounds like someone may have some character or life aspects in common with the people we are discussing. No thanks.
I agree, I think so many of the complicit wives are excused too much. Cosby had a great reputation even if there were whispers but it was also a different time without the internet.
But he is the only one of the bigger names were it wasnt entirely obvious.
Chen and Chapman both knew at least enough that their husbands were bastards who abused people. I’ll believe Chapman when she says she had no idea Harvey was raping but she fully took advantage of actresses being bullied for her terrible fashion.
As if any of those women fell in love with those awful men and it certainly wasnt lust either.
If you make a deal with the devil you’ll have to live with it.
Speaking of Weinstein, “The Weinstein Company” is visible on the background of the posing platform in the first header photo, ugh.
I said this on the initial Les Moonves post about him resigning but I never know whether to feel sympathy or to be unsympathetic to women married to these kind of men. It’s hard for me to believe they had no idea at all of anything going on.
Never been a huge fan of Julie Chen, can’t put my finger on why and while she has benefited from her marriage to Moonves, she did work pretty hard in broadcast journalism before she married Moonves so she doesn’t owe all her career to him. Hopefully she is reevaluating the “I stand by my husband” BS.
They are unsympathetic because they are the definition of unsympathetic. Just trying to help you resolve this.
She “worked really hard” to get in front of a powerful man who would make it unnecessary to work hard. I mean, I guess it’s good work if you can get it, but she didn’t work her butt off to get The Talk and Big Brother. She married the boss and was rewarded with those gigs. He also makes money for everything she does because he’s the boss, so the better she does, the richer he gets.
As far as I’m concerned, they are both ruthless predators with different targets. She wanted to advance her career by going after the big boss. He wanted to satisfy his raging male ego. They suit one another.
YAAAASSSSS! She’s a complicit beotch…she definitely knew.
Why is no one talking about how dirty he did Janet? He straight up went after her career because she wasn’t appropriately contrite. #NeverForget
I mentioned it in the last store about this fool. It fell on deaf ears like I expected it to.
I didn’t comment but took note. I also raed about it on Jezebel and The Root. I think that you might have to go to The Root to get the type of response that you are looking for…
@Renee. So you are saying that black commenters are not welcomes here. Got it.
Hi Tiffany,
I didn’t intend for my comment to come across that way. You mentioned it, Nicole mentioned it, and I mentioned it and we all have identified as Black in this site. Which is not to say that commenters of other races aren’t outraged about it or haven’t mentioned it. I was more speaking to the way that I have seen discussions of topics where race is an issue unfold across different sites. There are differences in the ways in which things are discussed on The Root as opposed to here, and there are differences in the way in whuch things are discussed at Jezebel as compared to The Root even though they are sister sites. RuPaul Charles is discussed differently at Towleroad than he is here or at Jezebel, and at The Root he rarely comes up at all although he is of the Black diaspora. I wish that I could DM you.
Too many shitstorms going on at one time. I can’t keep up. You’re right tho. Thanks for keeping that front and centre.
Exactly and who knows what sufficient apology is that perv anyway. Also JC threw JJ under the bus on her show. So i hope she goes too.
But never said boo about Justin TImberlake, the one who actually pulled off her top in the first place.
AND it was all planned and carefully choreographed. If the response had been positive, people would have been raving about JJ and throwing money at Moonves (well, MORE money). Because it created OUTRAGE, the men immediately went shopping for a scapegoat.
Can we all just tKe a minute and appreciate Ronan Farrow. He launched a movement that, I believe, will change the world. He cannot be given enough credit.
+1
Did he start it or did Tarana Burke start it with a hashtag and he used that to start investigating?
I can appreciate Farrow but also recognize he didn’t start something but picked up a piece of something and was given a bigger platform because of gender and race.
Farrow’s story came out first about Weinstein. Then the #metoo thing happened. In response to the stories.
The first story came out at the New York Times. It was written by two women, who seem to keep being forgotten. I get that Farrow is dreamy, but his was not the first story published. He shares his Pulitzer with journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times.
@hollyhobby Tarana Burke started #MeToo in 2006, so it was a decade later that Farrow’s investigation came out.
She was a guest of Michelle Williams at the Golden Globes this year to raise awareness of her activism – which was such a good move because white men and women keep getting all the credit for the movement.
@Sophia’s Side Eye
Farrow’s story in the New Yorker, while it came out a few days after Twohey and Kantor’s NYT story, was more deeply sourced, had more women going on the record, was more detailed, had quotes from people within the Weinstein company corroborating the details. I remember being underwhelmed with the NYT story and thought it was neutered by the editors. Or maybe Kantor’s and Twohey’s reporting just wasn’t as good. Either way, I don’t think the backlash to Weinstein and the launch of MeToo would’ve been nearly as strong as it was without Farrow’s story. Frankly, I think he’s the only one who deserved a Pulitzer, which saddens me as a feminist….but the work speaks for itself.
Georgina got her label on celebrities and Julie got her shows/job security. It is possible not to know the details and still know in your gut who you are married to.
@Nicole. I read it and felt sick. Moonves tried to destroy Jackson but most likely gave Timberlake a nod and a wink. No, I saw that Moonves was/is a monster.
Agreed, and when I saw the clip of Chen discussing this on the talk, and the things she said about Janet, she came across as so slimy and manipulative. I never cared for her but that really made me actively dislike the woman.
She’d have to be this way given the shows she’s hosting or cohosting. Those are slimy shows. She is not a person aiming for any morality in life.
I hope Janet sues him for all he is worth. It’s a part of the same personality type that would sexually harass. He doesn’t view women as people, especially a black woman. He’s a pig and so is his wife.
Agreed.
I was prepared to think Chen was being wilfully blind to Moonves being slimy but learning what she said about Janet just disgusted me and frankly she can get off tv and count her money with her rapist husband. That comment told me she knows his vindictiveness at the very least and agrees with it. Well karma is coming for a visit.
He’s an awful, horrible person.
I’m sorry but I’m not giving the wives any “Maybe they didn’t know” leeway. So, Julie never ever ever heard anything about Les? Hmmmmm…okay, right. Sure, Julie, if that’s how you sleep at night. . .
I am especially side-eyeing Georgina Chapman. Because Weinstein’s disgusting behavior to go along with his disgusting looking self has been “common knowledge” since the 90s. Whispers of him showed up in gossip sites back then. So, NO ONE told her anything about Weinstein when she met or dated him? Really? No pity for her. None.
again not her fault, but I have a hard time believing she wasn’t aware of this or didn’t see his anger/temper close up. the anger he had for janet Jackson is so messed up
Sigh. I am sick and tired of all the crap these disgusting, over paid, ego driven, sexual dogs have gotten away with since … forever.
Les cheated on his wife with Julie Chen. Married man and his mistress.
Should anyone be surprised that he and she are both grade A assholes?
Zero sympathy or understanding either of them!
Hey, you cheat with a married man and then claim “I had no idea he could be a bad guy.”
Ah, BS!
Julie Chen made her bed, lives very wealthy lifestyle, she is with him because of his money and power.
I could not care less if she divorces him or not. She is a talentless hack on air.
The View is a crapola show, as most network daytime tv is. Talk shows, game shows, infomercials, reruns from the ’70s, life insurance commercials. Repeat.
You know who I bet is really enjoying this stuff coming out about Les and Julie?
David Letterman. Ever watch Letterman “interview” Julie Chen on his Late Show?
If I recall correctly, Letterman said “Yeah, Julie, sure whatever you want. What am I gonna do, disagree with the Boss’ wife? How dumb do you folks think I am?” Then turning to full face the camera with his smug grin. Sometimes, I miss Dave. (Who was also a cheating husband)
leave of absence?? Please the only reason the chenbot had any jobs was because creeper Les got them for her. She knew he was doing this shit for years. Julie choose to be with the trash to get on TV, she even had surgery to make her eyes look “less Asian”, Good bye to both of those trash people.