Inside George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts’ feud that escalated over claims of sex assault by GMA producer
GEORGE Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts’ feud that escalated over claims of sex assault by a Good Morning America producer isn’t ending anytime soon.
The Sun can exclusively reveal that Kirsty Crawford, the woman at the center of the GMA star’s recent clash, has filed an appeal to her sexual harassment lawsuit against the network and former top producer Michael Corn, 53.
The former ABC staffer filed her appeal on June 14th, just days after the lower court dismissal.
In her lawsuit, Crawford noted that Corn was also alleged to have sexually assaulted fellow ABC employee, Jill McClain.
Crawford is pushing back on the dismissal and the judge’s decision to grant ABC and Corn’s “motion to dismiss,” and strike the paragraphs in the complaint relating to her colleague McClain’s allegations against the producer.
In her appeal, Crawford said the portion of the complaint alleging “that respondent Corn sexually assaulted at least one other ABC employee under eerily similar circumstances are directly relevant to appellant claims and have substantial probative value.”
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In the complaint, Crawford, 32, said she had worked with ABC for eight years and at the time of the filing she was working as the anchor producer for George Stephanopoulos on GMA.
According to a report by The Daily Beast, GMA staffers discussed the suit during a team-wide call in 2021, with lead anchor Robin Roberts remarking: “If this happened to someone on my team, I would have burned the place down.”
Staffers said the comment was directed at Stephanopoulos, 61, who became “livid” when he heard about Roberts’ not-so-subtle remark.
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Roberts, 61, was reportedly incensed about ABC and her co-host’s handling of the situation.
In a statement to The Daily Beast at the time, an ABC News spokesperson said: “Robin and George are fine. She told him personally that she wasn’t referring to him and called the team the next day to reiterate that her comment was not about any one individual.”
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS KNEW
In her suit, Crawford alleged that in November of 2017, “Stephanopoulos called her into his office and explained that he had recently learned from a third party about Corn’s sexual assault of Crawford that occurred in Los Angeles in 2015.”
The suit continued that “Stephanopoulos was emotional. He further explained that he would have to inquire internally regarding his reporting obligations.
“Stephanopoulos disclosed the sexual assault to Heather Riley (then Senior Director of Publicity for Good Morning America) and Derek Medina (then Senior Vice President for Business Affairs at ABC News) and was directed to Tanya Menton (a Vice President in ABC’s litigation department),” according to the suit.
“Later, Stephanopoulos again reached out to Crawford and urged Crawford to call Menton and tell her about the assault. Stephanopoulos told Crawford that Menton was expecting Crawford’s call,” according to court papers.
In her complaint, she alleged that she spoke to Riley, who had told her that “reporting the assault and harassment might get ‘messy.'”
It was also noted in the filing that this was the same month that their direct competitors at NBC’s Today Show were embroiled in their own sexual assault and harassment scandals with disgraced anchor Matt Lauer having just been fired.
“Fearing retaliation from Corn and fearing that making a formal complaint would do more harm than good or even result in losing her job, Crawford never called Menton,” she said in her complaint.
CRAWFORD’S CLAIMS AGAINST CORN
Crawford alleged that during a work trip to cover the Academy Awards in 2015, an allegedly intoxicated Corn unexpectedly hopped into her Uber to go back to their hotel.
According to the complaint in the car “Corn grabbed Crawford’s hand and told her that he wanted to be able to help her with her career. Corn claimed that it was unlikely that Stephanopoulos genuinely cared about Crawford’s career. But Corn assured Crawford that he, on the other hand, truly did care about her career.
“Crawford was beyond uncomfortable; she was in a moving vehicle, her boss was forcibly touching her, and she did not know how to extract herself safely from the situation. Corn did not stop there. He grabbed Crawford’s head and pulled it into his chest and kept telling her to ‘just relax’ and kept asking ‘why are you so tense?’ Corn then began kissing Crawford on the head and rubbing her legs,” according to court papers.
“He accused Crawford of being ‘insecure’ and asked her if she had ‘daddy issues.’ Each time Crawford tried to pull away, Corn pulled her right back.”
Back at the hotel, Crawford claimed that Corn seemed to be trying to go back to her room and not his.
Thinking she could out maneuver her new boss, she walked him to his room instead.
Once there, he said he wasn’t feeling well and asked if she had Advil, so she took Advil out of her purse and poured a glass of water and placed it on the nightstand.
According to the suit “Corn then asked Crawford to sit down with him. Crawford was confused and did not know what she should do. She hesitated, but then sat on the edge of the bed. To this day, Crawford feels ashamed that she sat on the edge of that bed and wishes she had just left the room.
“Corn grabbed Crawford’s arm and pulled her down onto the bed and pulled her head onto his chest. Crawford was frozen in fear. While holding Crawford’s head against his chest, Corn began kissing the top of Crawford’s head, petting her hair, and stroking her arm. Over and over again, Corn repeated, “Shhhh, let’s just lie here; shhhh, let’s just lie here, shhhh.”
“Thankfully, Crawford was able to pull away from Corn’s grasp and rushed to her room.”
The former ABC staffer said that that night, after freeing herself from Corn, she called her boyfriend, now husband, hysterically crying over what had happened, and told him she never wanted to speak about it again.
McCLAIN’S ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CORN
While Jill McClain is not a party to Crawford’s suit due to her allegations being too old to form the basis of a separate claim, they were included in support of Crawford’s case according to the lawsuit.
McClain was working for ABC anchor Diane Sawyer at the time of her alleged assaults.
“Corn also assaulted McClain on two separate occasions—once on a redeye flight from Los Angeles to New York, and once in London—both times while traveling with McClain for ABC business.”
“Corn groped McClain’s vagina over her jeans on an airplane, pinned her down on a hotel bed, pulled down the top of her jumpsuit, and fondled her bare breasts.”
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Although the time for McClain to assert a claim against Defendants has expired, and thus she has no financial stake in this litigation, McClain shares her story here in support of Crawford, with a hope to ensure that Corn never has a chance to prey upon any other women, and that ABC is forced to address the hostile work environment that it has facilitated.
The Sun has reached out to ABC for comment.
