CNN's Chris Cuomo Admits Sexually Harassing Former Boss

A former ABC executive producer has accused Chris Cuomo of sexually harassing her at a 2005 work party after he grabbed her butt in front of her husband and co-workers — and he later called it a “hearty greeting.”

The NY Post reports Shelley Ross, a veteran TV journalist, detailed the incident at an Upper West Side bar in a New York Times op-ed Friday.

Shelley Ross

She said Cuomo sent an email in the aftermath telling her he was “ashamed”.  

Ross said she was working as an executive producer of an ABC entertainment program at the time, but had been Cuomo’s boss on ABC’s “Primetime Live” just prior.

“I was at the party with my husband, who sat behind me on an ottoman sipping his Diet Coke as I spoke with work friends. When Mr. Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, 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 said.

Cuomo said in a statement regarding the allegations: “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.”