Washington Post: Eight women accuse Charlie Rose of unwanted sexual advances

Eight women are accusing veteran journalist and television host Charlie Rose of sexual misconduct, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The CBS “This Morning” co-host has been accused of making unwanted sexual advances that ranged from walking around naked in front of women who worked for him, making lewd suggestions during phone calls, and groping their breasts, butt or genital areas, according to the report.

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The women claim that the inappropriate advances took place when they worked for or aspired to work for Rose on his longtime running PBS show “Charlie Rose” from the late 1990s until as recently as 2011.

One of Rose’s former assistants in the mid-2000s, Kyle Godfrey-Ryan, told the Post about at least a dozen times when she would be working out of one of Rose’s New York City homes and he would appear naked in front of her.

She also recounted cases when he would talk about how he fantasied about her swimming naked in the pool at his house as he watched, she told the newspaper.

“It feels branded into me, the details of it,” Godfrey-Ryan said.

The women recounted the unwanted sexual advances to the Post in “multiple interviews.” Three women spoke to the newspaper on the record, while the other five requested their identities remain anonymous “out of fear of Rose’s stature in the industry,” according to the report.

Rose, in response to the allegations, acknowledged he had “behaved insensitively at times” and is “greatly embarrassed.”

“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 said in a statement to the Post.

“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 said.