Longtime 'Good Morning America' anchor lobs sexual harassment claim at ex-boss
Former "GMA" host Joan Lunden has alleged that her former ABC boss sexually harassed her during the early days of her career, according to a USA Today report Tuesday.
Lunden co-anchored the morning show from 1980 to 1997 and revealed that the harassment happened during her time as host at WABC when she was just 25 years old. She did not identify the former boss connected to the allegations.
The Emmy-nominated broadcaster detailed her experiences as a reporter and anchor at the New York station from 1975 until she joined "GMA" in 1980 in her new book "Joan: Life Beyond the Script." In the book, she referred to her former boss as "Ted," who asked her to join a work meet-up on Fire Island, calling the event a "good opportunity for you to socialize with the rest of the team."
"Not having any close friendships in the newsroom, I was concerned that I would feel awkward and uncomfortable, like a tagalong," Lunden said. "With some encouragement, I agreed to go. I'd never been to the famed Fire Island before. I'd heard that no cars were allowed on the island, so you had to take a ferry to get there."
But when Lunden arrived, there was only one other colleague there with his girlfriend — and it appeared to be "an overnight double date," she explained.
"I was embarrassed that I'd been so naive as to let this situation unfold, and I was offended as a woman that a guy — my superior at work — thought he could get away with this!" Lunden reflected. "He assumed that I would just go along with it."
She said her boss tried to pressure her to sleep in his bed with him, but instead she slept on a couch.
"'Ted, you know this is not what I signed up for,' I said, trying to be strong but not too offensive, since he was my boss," Lunden wrote in her book. "I was praying he would say, 'Oops, my bad. I'm sorry, let me take you back home.' Instead, he tried to be charming and make light of it. 'Look, maybe the original plan fell through, but we're all here, so let's just enjoy ourselves.'"