“The Talk” co-host Julie Chen was absent from the season premiere while colleagues speculated the show could end as a result of changes at CBS.
Julie Chen is addressing why she was absent on the Season 9 premiere of "The Talk" on Monday.
“I am taking a few days off from ‘The Talk’ to be with my family. I will be back soon and will see you Thursday night on Big Brother,” Chen said in a statement obtained by Variety.
Chen's absence comes one day after her husband, Les Moonves, resigned as the Chief Executive at CBS after at least 12 women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct in a pair of New Yorker articles authored by Pulitzer Prize winner Ronan Farrow published on Sunday.
Per Variety, co-host Sharon Osbourne started the show by calling the season's first day "bittersweet."
"We’re about to talk about something that affects everyone’s lives at CBS. I’ve never been nervous in my life, and I’m very nervous right now. As you all know, Julie’s husband is in the news, and she’s taking off time to be with her family," Osbourne said.
CBS CHIEF LES MOONVES STEPS DOWN AMID SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS
She continued: “I want to say that whatever times I’ve had of hardship over the past eight years, Julie has always been there for me. She’s been a friend. She’s been someone who I admire and respect greatly. It’s very embarrassing and upsetting to have to talk about her husband, but we do. We feel it’s right. I personally know Les Moonves in a superficial way. It was, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Nothing more. I know nothing about the man, other than that he’s Julie’s husband, and he was the head of the biggest network in the world, and the most powerful man in TV.”
In a statement released Sunday evening, CBS said that Moonves would depart his position as chairman, president and CEO "effective immediately." COO Joseph Ianniello was announced as president and acting CEO "while the Board conducts a search for a permanent successor."
The network also announced that it and Moonves would donate $20 million to organizations that support "that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace." The $20 million would come out of any compensation Moonves is due to receive following the conclusion of an ongoing investigation into the allegations against him.
Moonves’ future at CBS came into question in July, when Farrow published an exposé in the New Yorker detailing allegations from six women. Last week, multiple news outlets reported that Moonves was negotiating a possible exit with independent directors of CBS' board.
Then on Sunday, the New Yorker published claims against Moonves by six more women. Some alleged he forced them to perform oral sex on him, forcibly kissed them, exposed himself to unwilling participants and put the careers of those that rebuffed his advances in jeopardy.
In a statement to the magazine, Moonves said, “The appalling accusations in this article are untrue. What is true is that I had consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before I came to CBS. And I have never used my position to hinder the advancement or careers of women."
He continued: "In my 40 years of work, I have never before heard of such disturbing accusations. I can only surmise they are surfacing now for the first time, decades later, as part of a concerted effort by others to destroy my name, my reputation, and my career. Anyone who knows me knows that the person described in this article is not me.”
Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain, and Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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