Charlie Rose Settles Harassment Suit With Three Ex-Employees

Charlie Rose has reached a settlement with three former CBS employees who sued him in 2018 for sexual harassment.

The accusers, Katherine Brooks Harris, Chelsea Wei and Sydney McNeal, alleged that Rose touched them on their thighs, kissed their cheeks and made numerous inappropriate sexual remarks.

Rose was fired from his job as a co-host of “CBS This Morning” in November 2017, at the height of the #MeToo movement, when the Washington Post reported on harassment allegations from eight women. Bloomberg TV and PBS also canceled his long-running interview show, “Charlie Rose,” which was produced by Rose’s company.

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Rose publicly apologized for his “inappropriate behavior,” saying he had behaved “insensitively.”

The Post followed up in May 2018, citing 27 complaints stretching back to the 1980s. The three plaintiffs were included in that report, and filed suit shortly thereafter.

They settled with CBS in December 2018, but the case against Rose has lingered in New York Supreme Court for over six years. In 2019, a judge threw out a retaliation claim, finding there was no evidence that the women had been singled out for retaliatory treatment when they were laid off after Rose’s show was canceled. But the judge found enough merit to the sexual discrimination claim to allow it to proceed.

Rose’s lawyers characterized the claims as “low-level office interactions” in a recent court filing, and argued that the plaintiffs filed under New York City’s gender discrimination law because they could not reach the threshold for “severe and pervasive” sexual harassment under state or federal law.

The parties filed a joint stipulation on Sunday dropping the case, and the judge issued notices Tuesday that pending motions would be withdrawn. Terms were not disclosed.

Rose, now 82, has been posting new interviews conducted over Zoom on his website and on YouTube since 2022, including recent ones with Bob Costas and Michael Lewis.

Rose’s former makeup artist, Gina Riggi, also sued him in September 2019. That case remains pending.