A former contributor for CNN is opening up about an alleged inappropriate textual content exchanged between her and Chris Cuomo “that went woefully wrong” — and allegedly bought her axed from the community.
During her premiere episode of the Native Land Pod on Thursday, Angela Rye – who frequently appeared on the previous CNN anchor’s present Cuomo Prime Time as a visitor – tearfully detailed the alleged “embarrassing and humiliating” expertise scenario with Cuomo for the primary time. The 44-12 months-outdated journalist recalled she shared an image of herself carrying a “gold-sequin bikini” on Instagram on New Year’s Day in 2021. After posting the picture, she allegedly obtained a really inappropriate message from Cuomo:
“It all began on New Year’s Day [2021] when I posted a picture of myself looking forward to the New Year in a gold sequin bikini on Instagram. Cuomo screen-shot the image and said, ‘Happy New Year, tinsel crotch.’”
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What the f**ok?! No one ought to ever say one thing like that to their co-employee! And understandably, the message “stunned” and upset Angela. She mentioned:
“Stunned, I read and reread the message a dozen times, trying to understand if I somehow brought this on myself … I teared up, like now, and then the tears flowed, I felt like the safest place I had on a show on CNN had been compromised.”
Angela didn’t reply to the textual content. Cuomo then adopted up with one other textual content message that merely mentioned: “hello.” Roughly every week later, Cuomo “was texting me about a segment idea he had for his primetime show” and provided her the function – seemingly in an try to repair what occurred on New Year’s Day. Angela remembered:
“Chris Cuomo was suddenly excited about a prominent role for me where I would ‘check the left.’”
At first, the ESPN correspondent questioned the “genuine nature of this idea” as a result of “Cuomo came up with this particular segment idea after [the] text exchange that went woefully wrong.” She didn’t reply to the textual content in regards to the alternative instantly. However, Angela later determined to go for it. She mentioned on the podcast she reached out to him a few week later and requested “if he still wanted to discuss his work idea despite him mentioning tinsel bikini and tinsel bottom along the way.”
And then Angela obtained some stunning information. On January 21, 2021, the community known as to her it wasn’t renewing her contract as “they would be focusing more on [COVID] coverage and less on politics.” However, Angela mentioned she “knew it was a lie”:
“It was confirmed when two black women were hired for half my contributor rate right after.”
Last 12 months, Angela claimed Chris texted her from a brand new cellphone quantity and requested if she was mad at him. And she was. Angela continued:
“I was, but I was really mad at myself. I was mad at myself for not saying anything sooner because I was lacking courage and preferring my financial well-being over my mental health, not standing up for women, who are often left powerless … I was mad at myself for protecting your image with the black women I know who loved you and looked forward to hearing your voice. I was mad at myself for shrinking in the face of power when people depend on me to stand up, to speak up.”
What made the scenario “harder” for Angelea? She defined that they “were legitimately cool” earlier than the incident, including:
“We had a great rapport, and I was worried about damaging a friendship, and a working relationship that you actually damaged.”
When her co-host Tiffany Cross requested if she thinks the textual content message debacle value her job, Angela shared that Cuomo had been “brutally cold” to her when the community didn’t renew her contract – which led her to imagine he had one thing to do together with her firing:
“I don’t know if [he had me fired] or not, but that is certainly what I believe now.”
So, so terrible. You can hearken to the podcast (beneath):
Our hearts break for Angela. A co-employee ought to by no means, ever deal with one other co-employee like this. As it’s possible you’ll know, the 53-12 months-outdated NewsNation was fired from CNN in 2021 as a consequence of his involvement in serving to his brother, Andrew Cuomo, in opposition to allegations of sexual harassment. This additionally isn’t the primary time Cuomo has been accused of being inappropriate with a colleague. Months after the textual content message incident, his former ABC News boss, Shelley Ross, claimed in a New York Times op-ed that he sexually harassed her throughout a going-away occasion for one more co-employee in 2005.
At this time, Cuomo hasn’t responded to the most recent allegation in opposition to him. Reactions? Let us know within the feedback beneath.
[Image via Native Land Pod/YouTube, CNN/YouTube]
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