Julie Chen is standing by her husband, Les Moonves, after he was accused of sexual harassment in a report published by The New Yorker on Friday. (Getty Images)
Julie Chen is standing by her husband, Les Moonves, after he was accused of sexual harassment in a report published by The New Yorker on Friday.
“I have known my husband, Leslie Moonves, since the late ‘90s, and I have been married to him for almost 14 years,” Chen wrote in a statement on Twitter.
She continued: “Leslie is a good man and a loving father, devoted husband and inspiring corporate leader. He has always been a kind, decent and moral human being. I fully support my husband and stand behind him and his statement.”
Six women have accused CBS Chairman and CEO Les Moonves of sexual harassment, according to Ronan Farrow's latest report, published by The New Yorker.
Additionally, more than two dozen company employees, past and present, detailed incidents of harassment, gender discrimination or retaliation at CBS, the report said.
Chen and Moonves began their romance in 2003, when he was still married to wife Nancy Wiesenfeld Moonves.
When Chen’s relationship with the CBS executive became public, she was the host of “The Early Show” on the network. She has since nabbed the roles of host on “The Talk” and “Big Brother,” both, of course, on CBS.
Moonves and Chen share one child, a young son named Charlie.
His estranged wife at the time was seething when Moonves left her for Chen and hardly kept her complaints to herself.
She told the New York Daily News in 2004, "I knew our marriage would end eventually. But the way it happened was not correct, it was not moral.”
Nancy added of CBS, "Neither I nor our children have watched it in years. I don't want to see [Chen]. It's not healthy for me or my kids.”
She told the publication she stayed in Los Angeles during the final years of her marriage to Moonves.
"I was uncomfortable coming to New York," she said. "I felt that everybody knew about what was going on [between Moonves and Chen]. And everybody did know. Except me.”
Chen told Buzzfeed in 2015 she has a tough time with public scrutiny. She said she experienced a lot of backlash when “Big Brother” first hit the air, and it was tough to handle.
“I read what was written about me and — surprise, surprise — the majority wasn’t kind. It's a scary, dark, lonely place. Part of me thought there would always be haters, but sometimes you read a comment and realize there's a grain of truth to it: ‘I could see why they think that of me.’”
Rumors have swirled since 2011 that Chen isn’t particularly well-liked by her co-hosts on “The Talk.” The New York Post reported at the time that Chen told her castmates, “My husband can fire your asses any day,” causing understandable tensions on the set.
Moonves spoke out about the rumors after the buzz failed to die down on its own.
“Anybody that knows my wife knows she would never say that,” he told Newsweek that same year.
In 2015 he sang her praises.
“She's unbelievably accessible, very smart, and delivers a great deal of trust, yet you feel like she could be your friend,” Moonves told Buzzfeed. “She's someone you want to hang out with.”
Chen gushed about her home life with her exec in the interview, explaining she put her dreams of being a foreign correspondent aside to be with Moonves and her son.
"I look at my life outside of [work] and my family is so important," she said. "I could never see having the life I have now at home with my son and my husband and being a foreign correspondent... I couldn't do both things well.”
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