Charlie Rose Accused of Sexual Harassment By Eight Women

Eight women have come forward with sexual harassment allegations against journalist Charlie Rose, the co-host of CBS This Morning and PBS‘ Charlie Rose. The women claim Rose made lewd phone calls, groped them or walked around in the nude in front of them.

The eight women came forward to the Washington Post, and five of them spoke out of anonymity, fearing backlash because of 75-year-old Rose’s stature in the industry. The women worked or hoped to work for the Charlie Rose show between the late 1990s and 2011. Their ages range from 21 to 37 at the time of the alleged incidents.

Five of the women told the Post that Rose put his hands on their legs, often moving to their upper thighs to test how they would react. One said Rose groped her buttocks during a party. Two others said Rose walked naked in front of them after getting out of a shower during business trips.

Reah Bravo was an intern for Charlie Rose in 2007. She told the Post Rose made unwanted sexual advances while working at his Bellport, New York estate and traveling with him.

Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, a former Rose assistant during the mid-2000s, was one of the women who said Rose walked in front of her while nude. Godfrey-Ryan said it happened at least a dozen times when she worked at his New York home. She also recalled lewd phone calls in which he described fantasies. She was 21 years old at the time and claims she told Rose’s longtime producer, Yvette Vega, at the time.

“I explained how he inappropriately spoke to me during those times,” Godfrey-Ryan told the Post. “She would just shrug and just say, ‘That’s just Charlie being Charlie.’ “

The third woman named in the Post‘s report is Megan Creydt, who worked as a Charlie Rose coordinator from 2005 to 2006. She recalled Rose putting his hand on her mid-thigh early one morning while riding in a Mini Cooper with Rose. Her boyfriend at the time confirmed to the Post that Creydt told him her story.

The Post also spoke with about two dozen former employees about Rose’s behavior. Six said they saw Rose harassing others, while eight said they were uncomfortable with the way Rose acted around female employees. Ten others said they never saw or heard any questionable behavior from Rose. Other employees told the Post that the women who worked with Rose were sometimes dubbed “Charlie’s Angels.”

“I should have stood up for them,” Vega told the Post. “I failed. It is crushing. I deeply regret not helping them.”

“In my 45 years in journalism, I have prided myself on being an advocate for the careers of the women with whom I have worked,” Rose said in a statement to The Post. “Nevertheless, in the past few days, claims have been made about my behavior toward some former female colleagues.”

“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken,” Rose continued.

“I have learned a great deal as a result of these events, and I hope others will too. All of us, including me, are coming to a newer and deeper recognition of the pain caused by conduct in the past, and have come to a profound new respect for women and their lives,” he added.

Photo: Charlie Rose/Facebook, Getty Roy Rochlin