Former TV host Charlie Rose has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by three women in the wake of his #MeToo-era departure from CBS News in 2017 and the cancellation of his long-running, eponymous PBS talk show.
In the settlement, the plaintiffs said they do not attribute “malicious intent” to Rose and now realize his conduct may be subject to interpretation.
Lawyers for Rose and the women — younger employees who accused him of “predatory behavior” and “blatant and repeated sexual harassment” — filed court papers this week confirming that the lawsuit has been resolved. An online court docket listed the case as settled. The terms were not disclosed.
The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial Monday in Manhattan, after years of sparring over the women’s allegations and the dismissal of their retaliation claims against Rose.
Plaintiffs Katherine Brooks Harris, Sydney McNeal and Yuqing Wei said in a statement that the trial process and the required pre-trial exchange of evidence, known as discovery, had allowed both sides to “better understand each other’s positions.”
“On reflection, and having had the benefit of discovery, we realize that different people may interpret the behavior in different ways, which is why we have resolved the claims,” the women said. “We do not attribute evil motive or intent to Charlie Rose.”
An attorney for Rose, 82, and his production company, Charlie Rose Inc., declined comment.
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The veteran TV presenter has apologized for his behavior in the past, including in a statement on the eve of his dismissal in November 2017. at least eight women had come forward to accuse him of misconduct.
“It is vital that these women know I hear them and I sincerely apologize for my inappropriate behavior,” Rose said. “I am deeply ashamed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, although I do not believe that all of these accusations are true. I have always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, although I now realize that I did that.
Rose’s downfall was part of America’s #MeToo reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures — a social media-driven movement that also took down the “Today” host Matt Lauer and movie mogul Harvey Weinsteinamong others. In September 2018, Rose said the three women he settled with this week were “exploiting the #MeToo movement” when he filed. motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Rose now hosts an interview show on YouTube, where his recent guests have included author Michael Lewis and host Bob Costas.
Harris, McNeal and Wei sued Rose and CBS in New York state court in May 2018, about six months later. CBS fired him as anchor on its morning show, then called “CBS This Morning,” and PBS and Bloomberg Television dropped its nightly “Charlie Rose Show,” which had been on the air since 1991.
Harris was a broadcast contributor at “CBS This Morning,” and she later worked as an associate producer for Rose’s PBS show. McNeal was Rose’s executive assistant. Wei was a news assistant and later an anchor assistant for Rose at “CBS This Morning.”
The women, all in their early 20s when they were hired, accused the much older Rose of subjecting them to repeated physical and verbal sexual harassment on the job, including questions about their sex lives and bragging about his own. Harris and McNeal claimed that Rose said that “they were hired because he liked ‘tall women’, i.e. he was attracted to them,” and Wei claimed that Rose called her “Chinese doll.” The three women also accused CBS of knowingly failing to prevent Rose’s harassment.
CBS arranged in December 2018 for an unknown amount. The network said at the time that the women had requested that the terms be kept confidential.
If the lawsuit had gone to trial, Rose’s attorney said in court filings that he would challenge the credibility of Harris, McNeal and Wei’s claims with evidence showing they had previously expressed few or no concerns about the ex-host .
Attorney Jonathan Bach wrote in a Nov. 13 filing, among other documents, showing that Wei told a CBS human resources official that she had not experienced anything “sexually inappropriate” while working for Rose and that McNeal had confided in her therapist at the time that she had no personal experience with sexual harassment by Rose.
Other evidence cited by Bach showed that Harris told her therapist that any harassment by Rose was “very subtle” and that two months after working for him, she wrote to Rose that his interactions with her were “always professional and respectful.”
