A recent lawsuit against former Good Morning America lead producer Michael Corn reportedly sparked backstage tensions on ABC’s morning show, with co-hosts George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts reportedly clashing over their treatment of claims that their former boss sexually assaulted multiple women, four insiders told The Daily Beast on Monday.
Kirstyn Crawford, a producer who works closely with Stephanopoulos on GMA, is the person who filed a lawsuit against Corn, alleging he sexually assaulted her and cultivated a toxic work environment. Corn has denied the allegations against him and ABC has vowed to fight his allegations in court. On a team-wide GMA call, the lawsuit was discussed and Roberts became emotional, stating: “If this happened to anyone on my team, I would have burned the place down,” said several people present at the Daily Beast said.
The remark was a less than subtle blow to Stephanopoulos, who the trial named as being aware of Crawford’s alleged sexual assault almost four years ago. When Stephanopoulos heard of the comment, he was reportedly “livid” and Roberts remained “outraged” by ABC’s handling of the allegations as well as the perceived inaction of its co-host.
Meanwhile, ABC News spokeswoman Caragh Fisher said in a statement to the Daily Beast that the two co-stars are doing “fine,” adding: “She told him personally that she was not referring to him and called the team the next day to reiterate that his comment was not about a single individual. ”
Crawford’s allegations about Corn first arose in November 2017, according to the lawsuit, as the MeToo movement resulted in Matt Lauer’s ouster by NBC and CBS forcing Charlie Rose over allegations of sexual misconduct. The lawsuit alleges that Stephanopoulos spoke to Crawford in his office at the time, telling him that he had heard that she was allegedly assaulted by Corn in Los Angeles in 2015 while on a trip to the Oscars.
“He grabbed Crawford’s head and pulled it to his chest and kept telling him to ‘relax’ and ask ‘why are you so tense? “” Reads the trial of the alleged incident, in which Crawford and Corn traveled together in an Uber. “Corn then started kissing Crawford on the head and rubbing his legs. He accused Crawford of being “insecure” and asked her if she was having “daddy issues.”
The lawsuit claims that after Stephanopoulos learned that his producer had been sexually assaulted, he disclosed the case to Heather Riley, then senior advertising manager for GMA, Derek Medina, then senior vice president of business affairs, and Tanya Menton, Vice-President of Litigation. Crawford discussed the sexual assault allegations with Riley but, fearing retaliation from the supervisor, did not file a formal complaint.
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