Julie Chen Moonves quits ‘The Talk’ to focus on clearing her husband’s name

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It was just two weekends ago when the New Yorker published Ronan Farrow’s second massive expose on Les Moonves, who was CBS’s CEO. Within hours of the second article’s publication, Les Moonves had resigned from his position and issued a blanket denial to all of his victims’ claims. In the wake of that, the creator of Designing Women wrote a profoundly disturbing essay about how Moonves destroyed her career, and that his tenure at CBS has destroyed women’s careers, because he’s not only a sexual predator, he’s also a rampant misogynist who doesn’t even want to employ women or promote them or see them on television.

In the wake of all that, Moonves’ wife Julie Chen took a leave of absence from her CBS talk show The Talk. She still appeared on Big Brother, where she serves as host, and where she began to use her married name Julie Chen Moonves. Well, now she’s formally leaving The Talk.

Julie Chen is stepping down from “The Talk” on CBS, one week after her husband Les Moonves left the CBS Corporation under pressure. Chen’s decision is effective immediately, according to two sources close to her. She will address the decision through a videotaped message to viewers on Tuesday’s episode.

“She has decided that her main focus needs to be clearing her husband’s name from accusations made 25-30 years ago and tending to her son,” one of the sources said. The sources said she will continue to host the CBS reality show “Big Brother.”

A CBS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Monday night.

[From CNN]

I mean… it’s good that she’s leaving. It’s good that CBS’s signature daytime talk show won’t have to walk around eggshells so that JULIE CHEN MOONVES will feel comfortable in supporting her predator husband. But of course it’s not all good news: “She has decided that her main focus needs to be clearing her husband’s name from accusations made 25-30 years ago…” O RLY? Julie Chen is suddenly a master detective who will supervise the investigation into… discrediting the dozens of women whom her husband abused, harassed and assaulted? God, Julie Chen is just the worst.

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36 Responses to “Julie Chen Moonves quits ‘The Talk’ to focus on clearing her husband’s name”

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  1. Jerusha says:

    Good luck with that.

    • Jan90067 says:

      LOL. Sure Julie. Just like OJ going to find “the real killer”… one golf course at a time.

      Only thing SHE is going to find is a shark divorce lawyer.

      • still_sarah says:

        @ Jan90067 : curse you, woman! you stole my OJ comment! But no really, I think that if she and OJ got together, they would accomplish ……. absolutely nothing of significance.

  2. Jessamine says:

    Clearing his name right off their marriage license as she discovers his accusers are credible and divorces his ass.

  3. Lala11_7 says:

    Please…she’s gonna focus on making sure those finances are straight for when she does the “Divorce Dip”!!!!

    Focus on clearing her husband name…IF SHE DON’T GO AND SIT DOWN SOMEWHERE!!!!! And I’m sure next season…they will have ANOTHER host for “Big Brother”…and we can focus on not watching her anymore…

    And to THAT…I say…

    EXCELLENT!!!!

  4. Darla says:

    Well Jules, into each life a little rain must fall. At least you’ve got that hundreds of millions of dollars to sooth your sore ass.

  5. RBC says:

    Something big is about to drop. I am thinking criminal charges against her husband. A leave of absence I could understand, but quit the show? Yeah something is brewing

    • Addie says:

      Julie Chen always struck me as rather vile, even before the scandal. What choice is left but to leave? She has been humiliated and has no leverage now that hubby has been ostracized and shown the door, which is the fate awaiting her too.

    • Sayrah says:

      I don’t think so. I just think she can’t go back on the Talk after saying that Cosby’s accusers have similar stories and should be believed but not the accusers of her husband.

    • Lady D says:

      She’s a coward. I knew she wouldn’t go back and face questions from her colleagues.

    • holly hobby says:

      She decided not to go back when the Talk ladies were basically saying they believe the women and that Leslie was sad (Sharon’s somewhat words).

      That’s fine. She no longer can be the boss lady since her hubby is gone. She was a sorry reporter before she married Leslie so good luck with that investigation!

    • noway says:

      She really couldn’t have gone back, and not sure CBS wants her either. It would be one of the topics discussed. and I think she believes her husband and she may really be investigating it. She is a journalist by trade before all her more entertainment stuff, and I can see her doing this which is a bit scary. Good news is I doubt she will get anywhere as a good portion of the sources are on record. Still I just feel like that is where she is going with this.

      However, on the bad side I have heard rumors Farrow’s investigative techniques leave a bit to be desired. Yes he gets the main points right, but the rumor is he may add to a story. Keep in mind a lot of his sources are anonymous. I think the main complaint about him is not that he makes up anonymous sources, moreover he doesn’t check to verify anonymous sources well. This is what scares me about this. What if one of the anonymous stories is false, but 10 interviews are right. It could be Rolling Stones and the UVA rape case and diminishing all the others stories. The reality is about the UVA rape case it may not have happened there, but that story was and could have been said about a lot of colleges.

  6. Renee2 says:

    I just had a fantasy that Julie Chen “Moonves” is a master operative who is hoodwinking her husband, pulling the wool over his eyes so that she can divorce him, get all of his money, and then disperse it to the women assaulted by him, victims groups that work to support survivors of sexual assault and groups that advocate for women’s advancement in the workplace/film and media industry…ugh. Maybe she will at least be as steadfast in her commitment to clearing her husband’s name as OJ Simpson was to finding the “real” killers if Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

  7. lucy2 says:

    Think she really quit, or everyone at the show was like “So….we think you should leave”?

    Either way, I don’t see how she could have stayed on, or should have stayed on, so this was sort of inevitable. The “working to clear his name from 30 year old accusations” nonsense was unnecessary though.

    • BrutalEthyl says:

      I’m pretty sure they all thought she should leave. But I think if they’d told Mrs. Moonves that they would prefer she stepped down, she would have instead doubled down and refused to go. So I think it was her idea (probably thinking they miss her sooooo much lol) but the rest were glad. I like to think they had the CBS bartender make them all a big glass of Adios M-F’er and drank a toast.

  8. Krysha says:

    She’s a fool who’s making a fool of herself. I say carry on, Mrs. Moonves. There will be exactly 0 empathy for you when your predator husband gets what’s coming to him.

  9. Veronica S. says:

    More like “clearing his name so he can find another job and continue allowing her to live in comfort as a trophy wife.” Fade into obscurity where you belong, Chen.

  10. Boxy Lady says:

    I was wondering how she would be able to continue on The Talk. I mean, you know some celebrity at some point is going to bring up Les Moonves in an interview. And you know it wouldn’t stop at just one celebrity questioning about her husband. It’s best if she leaves the talk show.

  11. Fluffy Princess says:

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!! Deep breath. . .hahahahahahahahahahaha!

    Looks like you had a good run. Snatched a married man, got a big profile career, and lost it in a spectacular and humiliating way. Oh, Ms. Karma, she is workin’ overtime lately!

    • Darla says:

      I do kinda feel like his first wife must be laughing her butt off and maybe has some feeling of satisfaction after all this time. I know it was ugly and she named Chen as the 3rd party in the divorce filing.

      • Molly says:

        I try not to blame women for the actions of their husbands, but I do blame them for their own. Julie has shown us all who she really is.

  12. Chaine says:

    Oh good, then she and Roy Moore’s wife and Clarence Thomas’s wife and Soon-yi Previn can start a club. And once they get their respective husbands’ names cleared, they can go help OJ find the “real killers.”

  13. Erin says:

    This seems to me to be the classic manipulation of a narcissist… “If you love me you’ll quit.” “How can you keep working for the company that embarrassed me?” And so on. In “solidarity” with her husband she resigned from The Talk.
    But resigning from Big Brother is another kettle of fish. There are no co-hosts to pick up the slack & the company probably won’t let her out of that portion of her contract. So the only thing she can do to give them the bird is use his last name.
    Narcissist’s “helpers” are called Flying Monkeys (after the witch’s minions in Oz). She seems to fit the bill to a T.

  14. Melanie says:

    I was disappointed, because I always liked her. But it is time that we hold the wives accountable, too. I wrote about this reluctantly in my blog, because bitch had to go. There’s no way she could have stayed and it is perfect revenge for all the woman (and especially the first wife that Julie replaced) who were damaged. When my boss went to jail for stealing, he wife actually got an exemption from the IRS. I watched her blow through money. It really killed me a little.

    • noway says:

      This is what kind of bothers me you are correct I think some of the wives knew and others didn’t. I just don’t know which ones which. I think these type of men can be great to one woman and totally different to someone else. I also think if you loved this person and had no idea you might be inclined to believe them more than someone you don’t know. I knew a woman who was married to a serial rapist and it took her the police, reports and still a long while before she let it go and then she became totally disgusted and divorced him. It’s just totally against your reality. So I get that, and generally don’t go after the wives.

      Still when your husband has accusers who are willing to tell their story and especially put their names out their with it I think at the very least you need to stop commenting at all with snarky things like adding your husband’s name when you never used it before or saying it’s age old allegations and you want to clear his name. She should have said nothing, and even if she investigates it I wouldn’t tell anyone until you found something to exonerate him. You sound like OJ.

  15. BrutalEthyl says:

    SNARK ALERT/SPOILER. I just watched. It was an ass-kissing fest on Julie’s part and she kept referring to the “nine years” she’s been there, blah blah 9 years blah.

    Then they come back to the “ladies” where Sara Gilbert says “Well. Blah blah we’ve been friend for EIGHT years.” EIGHT YEARS. Not nine. Which year dropped off?

  16. Louise177 says:

    I don’t think Julie will divorce Les. I may be wrong but I think all of the allegations were before they met. She may think since it was so long ago it doesn’t matter. I don’t think she’s leaving CBS entirely. After Big Brother is over Julie will announce it. I don’t think I could show my face in work knowing what my husband did either.

    • Nic919 says:

      I think more women will come forward now that he’s gone from the network. No way this guy stopped harassing women once married to Chen. Once a predator with unchecked power, always a predator.

  17. car54 says:

    Welp…..at least now she’ll have all her time to stick right at Les’s side so he never has a chance to cheat or harrass again. Works for me!