Ex-TV host Charlie Rose settles sexual harassment lawsuit years after being fired in the #MeToo era

NEW YORK – Former TV host Charlie Rose has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by three women in the wake of his 2017 #MeToo-era departure from CBS News and the cancellation of his long-running, eponymous PBS talk show .

In the settlement, the plaintiffs said they do not attribute “malicious intent” to Rose and now realize his conduct may be subject to interpretation.

Lawyers for Rose and the women — younger employees who accused him of “predatory behavior” and “blatant and repeated sexual harassment” — filed court papers this week confirming that the lawsuit has been resolved. An online court docket listed the case as settled. The terms were not disclosed.

The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial Monday in Manhattan, after years of sparring over the women’s allegations and the dismissal of their retaliation claims against Rose.

Plaintiffs Katherine Brooks Harris, Sydney McNeal and Yuqing Wei said in a statement that the trial process and the required pre-trial exchange of evidence, known as discovery, had allowed both sides to “better understand each other’s positions.”

“On reflection, and having had the benefit of discovery, we realize that different people may interpret the behavior in different ways, which is why we have resolved the claims,” the women said. “We do not attribute evil motive or intent to Charlie Rose.”

An attorney for Rose, 82, and his production company, Charlie Rose Inc., declined comment.

The veteran TV presenter has apologized for his behavior in the past, including in a statement on the eve of his dismissal in November 2017, after at least eight women came forward to accuse him of misconduct.

“It is vital that these women know I hear them and I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior,” Rose said. “I’m very ashamed. I have acted insensitively at times and accept responsibility for this, even though I do not believe that all of these accusations are true. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize that I was wrong.”

Rose’s downfall was part of America’s #MeToo reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures — a social media-driven movement that also took down “Today” host Matt Lauer and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, among others.

Rose now hosts an interview show on YouTube, where his recent guests have included author Michael Lewis and host Bob Costas.

Harris, McNeal and Wei sued Rose and CBS in state court in New York in May 2018, about six months after CBS fired him as host of the morning show, then called “CBS This Morning,” and PBS and Bloomberg Television dropped his evening program traps. “Charlie Rose Show.”

Harris was a broadcast contributor at “CBS This Morning” and later worked as an associate producer for Rose’s PBS show. McNeal was Rose’s executive assistant. Wei was a news assistant and later an anchor assistant for Rose at “CBS This Morning.”

The women, all in their early 20s when they were hired, accused the much older Rose of repeatedly subjecting them to physical and verbal sexual harassment, including questions about their sex lives and bragging about his own. They accused CBS of knowingly preventing Rose’s harassment.

CBS settled in December 2018 for an undisclosed amount. The network said at the time that the women had requested that the terms be kept confidential.

Had the lawsuit gone to trial, Rose’s attorney said in court filings that he would challenge the credibility of Harris, McNeal and Wei’s claims with evidence showing they had previously expressed few or no concerns about the ex-host .

Attorney Jonathan Bach wrote in a Nov. 13 filing, among other documents, showing that Wei told a CBS human resources official that she had not experienced anything “sexually inappropriate” while working for Rose and that McNeal had confided in her therapist at the time that she had no personal experience of sexual harassment by Rose.

Other evidence cited by Bach showed that Harris told her therapist that any harassment by Rose was “very subtle” and that two months after working for him, she wrote to Rose that his interactions with her were “always professional and respectful.”