A former CNN contributor says Chris Cuomo put her via an “embarrassing and humiliating” revel in — and can have value her a role on the community.
Angela Rye — who seemed incessantly as a visitor at the former CNN anchor’s “Cuomo Prime Time” — claims she used to be “stunned” when Cuomo replied to bikini-clad photograph she posted on New Yr’s Day 2021 by means of pronouncing, “Happy New Year tinsel crotch,”
Rye stated that once she didn’t respond to him, Cuomo presented her thrilling new profession alternatives — apparently to easy issues over after the New Years message. But if she faced Cuomo about his bikini remark, CNN ended her contract.
Now, she says she believes Cuomo can have had her fired over the debacle.
The legal professional and commentator made the claims within the premiere episode of her iHeart podcast, “Native Land Pod,” which she co-hosts with Tiffany Pass and Andrew Gillum.
Maintaining again tears, Rye learn what looked to be an open letter to 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,” she learn.
“Cuomo screen-shot the image and said, ‘Happy New Year, tinsel crotch.’ “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,” a sobbing Rye instructed her co-hosts. She stated she didn’t respond to the textual content.
Rye, who has additionally seemed on MSNBC, 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club” and ESPN, stated that a week or so later, Cuomo, whom she described as “the darling of the network” used to be texting me a couple of section thought he had for his primetime display.”
She stated that following his New Years textual content, “Chris Cuomo was suddenly excited about a prominent role for me where I would ‘check the left.’”
Rye stated she had her doubts concerning 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 stated she didn’t reply to his be offering concerning the section instantly, however were given again to him a couple of week later asking “if he still wanted to discuss his work idea despite him mentioning tinsel bikini and tinsel bottom along the way.”
Then, she stated, on Janurary 21, 2021, the community known as to inform her they weren’t renewing her contract.
Rye claimed CNN instructed her “they would be focusing more on [COVID] coverage and less on politics.”
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“I knew it was a lie, and it was confirmed when two black women were hired for half my contributor rate right after,” she claims.
The community fired Cuomo in December 2021 for advising his brother, then-governor Andrew Cuomo, on his sexual misconduct scandal. (Gov. Cuomo has constantly denied wrongdoing and Chris is suing the community).
Rye claimed that Chris, now an anchor at Information Country, texted her from a brand new quantity final yr, and requested if she used to be mad at him. Maintaining again tears, Rye replied on her podcast Friday pronouncing: “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,” she stated at the podcast.
“I was mad at myself for shrinking in the face of power when people depend on me to stand up, to speak up,” she stated.
Rye stated the placement “was harder for me because we were legitimately cool.” She added, “We had a great rapport, and I was worried about damaging a friendship, and a working relationship that you actually damaged.”
Pass, Rye’s co-host and pal, requested her if she believes the incident value her her activity at CNN. Rye described Cuomo as being “brutally cold” to her once they didn’t renew her contract.
“I don’t know if [he had me fired] or not, but that is certainly what I believe now,” she stated.
This isn’t the primary time a colleague has accused Cuomo of being irrelevant. Coincidentally, months after Rye’s textual content incident, his former ABC Information boss, Shelley Ross, penned an op-ed within the New York Occasions claiming he sexually careworn her at a going-away birthday party for an ABC colleague in 2005.
“When Mr. Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock,” Ross wrote.
Cuomo replied by means of a CNN remark: “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”
A rep for CNN, Cuomo and Rye didn't get again to us by means of closing date.