CNN stays silent on Chris Cuomo after Shelley Ross’ sexual harassment allegations
Chris Cuomo was spotted heading back to New York City from the Hamptons Friday to host his CNN show — as the network stayed mum on allegations that the primetime star sexually harassed his former ABC boss at a work party 16 years ago.
The “Cuomo Prime Time” anchor was photographed dashing to the Hamptons airport to catch a seaplane to Manhattan. He didn’t address the allegations on Friday night’s show.
Shelley Ross, a former ABC executive producer, used a New York Times op-ed on Friday to reveal that Cuomo grabbed her butt in front of her husband and co-workers at a party on the Upper West Side in June 2005.
Ross ripped the CNN star in the op-ed, suggesting he had escaped accountability during the 2005 incident and again in the wake of his involvement in his brother Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s own sexual harassment scandal this year.
The veteran TV journalist also took aim at CNN, saying it was unclear if the network or Cuomo were “interested in accountability.”
CNN has not yet responded to The Post’s request for comment.
Cuomo has not denied the encounter with Ross, saying he apologized to her at the time.
Ross specifically noted Cuomo’s on-air admission back in March that he would no longer be covering or interviewing his brother amid the scandal, telling his CNN viewers: “I have always cared very deeply about these issues and profoundly so. I just wanted to tell you that.”
She said the on-air spiel — as well as him wearing a “truth” T-shirt after Gov. Cuomo resigned — “crystallized” how Chris Cuomo performed.
“For me, his statement of profound concern about sexual harassment and his ‘Truth’ T-shirt were provocations in this era of personal accountability,” Ross said.
There were widespread calls for CNN to fire Cuomo after it emerged he was among a handful of people consulting the disgraced former governor as he tried to salvage his career in the wake of the attorney general’s bombshell report accusing him of sexually harassing 11 women.
Cuomo gave a lengthy on-air apology to his viewers for participating in strategy sessions with his brother’s advisers, but he was not disciplined by CNN.
CNN president Jeff Zucker reportedly told staff during a town hall meeting that Cuomo had “made a mistake,” but insisted that “there are not special rules for Chris.”
“I am not surprised that Chris had conversations with his brother,” Zucker said. “Who wouldn’t? But he did cross the line by doing it with his brother’s aides present.”
“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.
