Angela Rye says Chris Cuomo put her through an “embarrassing and humiliating” experience that ultimately resulted in her firing.
via Page Six:
Angela Rye — who appeared regularly as a guest on the former CNN anchor’s “Cuomo Prime Time” — claims she was “stunned” when Cuomo responded to a bikini-clad photo she posted on New Year’s Day 2021 by saying, “Happy New Year tinsel crotch.”
Rye said that when she didn’t reply to him, Cuomo offered her exciting new career opportunities — seemingly to smooth things over after the New Year’s message.
But when she confronted Cuomo about his bikini comment, CNN ended her contract.
Now she says she believes Cuomo may have had her fired over the debacle.
The attorney and commentator made the claims in the premiere episode of her iHeart podcast, “Native Land Pod,” which she co-hosts with Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillum.
Holding back tears, Rye read what appeared to be an open letter to Cuomo.
“It all began on New Year’s Day [2021] when I posted a picture of myself looking forward to the New Year in a gold sequin bikini on Instagram,” she read.
“Cuomo screen-shot the image and said, ‘Happy New Year, tinsel crotch.’ Stunned, I read and reread the message a dozen times, trying to understand if I somehow brought this on myself … I teared up, like now, and then the tears flowed, I felt like the safest place I had on a show on CNN had been compromised,” a sobbing Rye told her co-hosts.
Rye, who has also appeared on MSNBC, 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club” and ESPN, said that a week or so later, Cuomo, whom she described as “the darling of the network,” “was texting me about a segment idea he had for his primetime show.”
She said that following his New Year’s text, “Chris Cuomo was suddenly excited about a prominent role for me where I would ‘check the left.’”
Rye said she had her doubts about the “genuine nature of this idea” because “Cuomo came up with this particular segment idea after [the] text exchange that went woefully wrong.”
She said she didn’t respond to his offer about the segment right away, but got back to him about a week later, asking “if he still wanted to discuss his work idea despite him mentioning tinsel bikini and tinsel bottom along the way.”
Then, she said, on Janurary 21, 2021, the network called to tell her it wasn’t renewing her contract.
Rye claimed CNN told her “they would be focusing more on [COVID] coverage and less on politics.”
“I knew it was a lie, and it was confirmed when two black women were hired for half my contributor rate right after,” she claims.
The network fired Cuomo in December 2021 for advising his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on his sexual misconduct scandal.
“Tinsel crotch” is completely out of pocket.
