Julie Chen Moonves admits she never revealed her true feelings about her exit from “The Talk” until she released her audio memoir, “But First, God,” in which she describes the choice as one she herself didn’t want to make.
“That was a hard time. I felt stabbed in the back,” Chen Moonves said in an interview on Good Morning America with Juju Chang. “I was.”
Chang brought up Chen Moonves’ description of her exit from “The Talk” as “a decision made for her.” Chang also brought up reconciliation, which Chen Moonves folds into her spiritual journey outlined in the book, and when Chang brought up whether Chen Moonves had ever asked her husband, Les Moonves, former CEO of CBS, about the truth of the sexual assault allegations brought against him, she answered calmly.
“That’s not what we’re here to talk about, but of course, yeah. I know my husband,” Chen Moonves said. “I know my husband.”
Accusations leveled against Les Moonves, dated as early as the 1980s, began to go public in 2017, causing Chen Moonves to later exit “The Talk” in 2018, citing the need to spend more time at home with her husband and their son. Moonves and Paramount Global ended up paying a combined $24.5 million to CBS shareholders to settle the sexual misconduct claims in addition to insider trading claims.
When asked about the #MeToo movement (which was not mentioned in “But First, God”) and the idea of #BelieveHer, Chen Moonves encouraged focus on Christ.
“I think that’s getting off track from ‘But First, God,” she said. “I think we all go through hard times in this world and our life. Mine are not over just because I found Christ.”
Chen Moonves also discussed her approach to telling her son about the accusations against Les Moonves.
“I kept it simple. I said ‘So if you ever hear anything or you read anything, you come to us first,’” she said. “You know this family, you know who we are and don’t let anyone shake that.”
Chen Moonves continues to host the CBS show “Big Brother,” which she also hosted at the time she stepped down from “The Talk.”
