ABC(NEW YORK) — Long-time CBS Chairman Les Moonves stepped down Sunday after six more women accused him of sexual misconduct, bringing the total to 12. One of his newest accusers sat down with Good Morning America Monday to tell her side of the story.
Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb spoke out a day after Moonves resigned as CBS chairman and chief executive after the online publication of a bombshell article in the New Yorker in which six women said they had either been sexually abused by Moonves, had their careers destroyed for rebuffing his alleged advances, or both. The new allegations against Moonves, a follow-up to Farrow’s initial bombshell investigation back in late July, reportedly range from the mid-1980s into the early 2000s.
Golden-Gottlieb described being sexually assaulted by Moonves in the 1980s when they both worked for the television production company Lorimar-Telepictures. She said Moonves drove her to a secluded area and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
Flanked by her attorney, Gloria Allred, Golden-Gottlieb explained to ABC’s Good Morning America why she waited nearly 40 years to come forward. “Because…I needed I needed the job,” she said, her voice shaking. “I have two children that I was responsible for. And I was frightened.”
After the initial assault, Golden-Gottlieb, now 82, told the magazine that she tried to avoid being alone with Moonves, whose star continued to rise within the company. However, on another occasion, she claims he confronted her while he was naked. This time, she rebuffed him, and subsequent to that, she claims, he got physical.
Golden-Gottlieb noted, “Right after he appeared naked, he came running into my office and did this whole thing about, that I didn’t send a memo to anybody. And then he picked me up and threw me against the wall. I mean, I just lay on the floor and cried. I mean, I didn’t know what was going to happen to me.”
She was punished professionally afterward, Golden-Gottlieb claimed, saying of Moonves, “He took my whole career.”
Moonves denied the accusations detailed in the latest New Yorker story. In a statement to the magazine, he said:
“The appalling accusations in this article are untrue. What is true is that I had consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before I came to CBS. And I have never used my position to hinder the advancement or careers of women. In my 40 years of work, I have never before heard of such disturbing accusations. I can only surmise they are surfacing now for the first time, decades later, as part of a concerted effort by others to destroy my name, my reputation, and my career. Anyone who knows me knows that the person described in this article is not me.”
Moonves didn’t identify with which three of his accusers he’d engaged in consensual sex. Golden-Gottlieb described his denial as “a joke,” adding, “It’s so bad.”
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