Julie Chen Moonves is claiming it was not her decision to leave The Talk in 2018 after she departed the daytime talk show following almost a decade of hosting.
The journalist and television personality recently appeared on Good Morning America to discuss her audio memoir But First, God, which explores the spiritual journey she’s been on since 2018, when she left The Talk after her husband — then CEO and chairman of CBS Media Venture, Les Moonves — was accused of sexual misconduct.
“That was a hard time,” she said today on Good Morning America. “I felt stabbed in the back. I was!”
She later added, “I don’t know if I could’ve reconciled if I didn’t have God in my life.”
When asked if she ever confronted her husband over whether the sexual assault allegations were true, Chen Moonves responded, “That’s not what we’re here to talk about, but of course. I know my husband. I know my husband.”
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Chen Moonves moderated The Talk for eight years before her abrupt exit in 2018. At the time, she said she had decided to leave to “spend more time at home with my husband and our young son.”
Her exit from the show came just days after Moonves was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in an investigation by The New Yorker. Moonves stepped down as CEO and chairman of CBS just hours after the report was released. Chen Moonves has stood by her husband since the allegations were first made. She did not begin using his name professionally until after the controversy, when she began using it to sign off.
“Julie Chen before she found God was self-absorbed, career-minded, vain, gossipy — fun to be with, but probably kind of a shallow person,” she said. “Julie Chen Moonves, who now knows the Lord, is someone who wants to help others; who wants to look at everyone with a soft heart.”
Despite leaving The Talk in 2018, Chen Moonves has continued hosting Big Brother through its recent 25th season.
New episodes of Big Brother air on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.
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