‘It Was Belittling’: Shelley Ross Tells Megyn Kelly That Chris Cuomo Groping Her Was ‘Clearly a Power Trip’

Shelley Ross, who accused Chris Cuomo of groping her at a bar years ago in a New York Times op-ed published last month, spoke to Megyn Kelly about the incident, sharing additional details and strongly denouncing Cuomo’s behavior as an attempt to belittle and humiliate her.

Ross had been Cuomo’s boss when she was at ABC News, and the incident in question occurred shortly after she had left ABC News and the two of them were attending another colleague’s going away party at an Upper West Side bar. According to Ross:

“I was at the party with my husband, who sat behind me on an ottoman sipping his Diet Coke as I spoke with work friends,” she wrote. “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.”

She added that Cuomo, “with a cocky arrogance,” said that he could “do this now” that she was no longer his boss.

“’No you can’t,’ I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range,” she added. “We quickly left.”

Cuomo himself did not deny Ross’ accusations, sending Ross an email apology shortly after the incident and making an additional statement after the op-ed was published.

“What goes through your head as this guy has the nerve to squeeze your ass?” asked Kelly.

“It was belittling,” Ross replied. “It was clearly a power trip, to make me feel — you know, you’re no longer my boss, I can do anything I want with you.”

“Something in his head said he couldn’t do that when I was his boss, maybe he thought I would fire him or something, but it was meant to diminish [me].”

Ross added that Cuomo was over 6 feet tall, and she was much smaller, only 5’2″ and under 100 lbs. and being groped by him “was overpowering and I certainly didn’t like it.”

Kelly responded that she thought that anyone who was “that brazen” with their former boss “must have done it before,” and it didn’t sound “like somebody who was experimenting with that kind of behavior for the first time.”

Cuomo had an “arrogant frat boy personality,” said Ross, who added that her husband had been shocked by Cuomo’s actions.

“A normal man doesn’t behave like this at the office,” said Kelly, criticizing Cuomo for both his own behavior and his role defending and advising his brother, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), for his own sexual misconduct scandal.

Watch the video above, via The Megyn Kelly Show.