Photo: YouTube / CNN
Her husband is not the one he needs to say sorry to!
By Alice Kelly — Written on Sep 24, 2021
Another Cuomo is facing sexual harassment allegations from a coworker — this time it’s CNN’s news anchor Chris Cuomo.
Chris Cuomo has faced backlash for his response to the allegations that pushed his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to resign but now it appears he has more to answer for that just his brother’s mistakes.
What did Chris Cuomo do?
In a brave essay penned in the New York Times, a former ABC news producer accused Cuomo of grabbing her buttock at a party in 2005.
Shelley Ross, a veteran television producer and the former boss of Chris Cuomo at ABC News, recounted the incident.
“He walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock,” she wrote.
“‘I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,’ he said to me with a kind of cocky arrogance. ‘No you can’t,’ I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range.”
Chris Cuomo addressed the alleged sexual harassment in an email.
Ross recalled Cuomo later sending an email explaining that he was “ashamed” by his behavior.
But the precise wording of the email appears to not only neglect the gravity of the situation but also overlooks how Ross was victimized by Cuomo’s advances.
“As a husband I can empathize with not liking to see my wife patted as such... so pass along my apology to your very good and noble husband,” Cuomo writes.
Placing Ross’s husband’s feelings about her being nonconsensually touched above Ross’s reaction betrays Cuomo’s ignorance about how these advances impact women.
While Cuomo does go on to apologize to Ross he does so for “putting you in such a position,” and doesn’t acknowledge what that position was or how it may have impacted her.
Shelley Ross believes Chris Cuomo meant to belittle her.
While Ross does not believe Cuomo’s actions were sexual in nature, she writes that the incident felt undermining to her.
“His form of sexual harassment was a hostile act meant to diminish and belittle his female former boss in front of the staff.”
Cuomo did respond to Ross’s essay in a statement.
“As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it,” he said.
The breach of consent echoes some of the allegations leveraged against Andrew Cuomo who’s sexual advances in the workplace likely had a similar effect in undermining and belittling female staff members.
Alice Kelly is a senior news and entertainment editor for YourTango. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. Keep up with her Twitter for more.