During a deposition in November, Charlie Rose was pushed to address sexual relationships with co-workers. The ousted CBS Morning anchor admitted to having romantic relationships with women who worked for him, but his attorneys stopped him from providing details about the interactions or whether he felt any remorse about his conduct.
Nevertheless, Rose did explain why those relationships were “inappropriate.”
Rose testified, “I’m saying inappropriate because the fact I had relationships with people in the workplace over those 45 years and, you know, we have now come to understand and appreciate and had by then that romantic relationships or intimacies were not appropriate in the workplace because, you know, because there was power and balance, and you were in some cases the boss and you had a relationship that was defined within the workplace.”
Rose’s deposition (read in full) was made public Monday as part of an ongoing sexual harassment lawsuit brought by three women who allege being subject to touching, sexual banter, and degrading behavior. The women have settled with CBS, but the legal action against Rose continues. He previously attempted to dismiss the case with the argument that plaintiffs were seizing upon routine workplace interactions and couldn’t support viable claims of harassment and retaliation. The case is now nearing the end of the discovery phase, and the plaintiffs Katherine Brooks Harris, Sydney McNeal and Chelsea Wei are demanding that Rose be forced to do another deposition and address lines of questioning his attorneys have shot down.
During the deposition, Rose appeared to acknowledge that he had established a reputation at CBS.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter