Major Hollywood stars such as TV mogul Shonda Rhimes and actresses Jurnee Smollett and Eva Longoria quit the Times Up movement after a sexual scandal rocked the multimillion-dollar organization.
Rhimes, 51, and Smollett, 34, the sister of Jussie Smollett, stepped down from their leadership posts from Times Up after the investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed that two of its leaders helped to draft a letter to discredit a sexual assault victim.
Shonda Rhimes, Eva Longoria, and Jurnee Smollett will step down from the board of Time's Up, the organization which fights for gender equality and advocates on behalf of sexual abuse victims, according to a release put out by the group. https://t.co/AxGsPdqlaF
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 5, 2021
According to The Grio, Tina Tchen, former chief executive, and attorney Roberta Kaplan, who co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in 2018, were forced to resign their leadership positions.
New York State attorney general Letitia James’ probe into the sexual assault accusations lodged against Cuomo revealed that Tchen and Kaplan helped Cuomo try to paint the sexual assault victim in a bad light.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is the latest in a long series of politicians who have been accused of sexual harassment or assault. Here are several of the most recent high-profile allegations. https://t.co/9Mz8vYONyp
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 3, 2021
Times Up was founded in the aftermath of the powerful and historic #MeToo movement. The latter was founded by a Black woman named Tarana Burke who formed #MeToo to seek support and redress for decades of rampant sexual harassment in the workplace.
Literally hundreds of predominantly powerful men were exposed in multiple genres by #MeToo for committing a various assortment of sexual improprieties against women.
Since its founding in 2018, the Times Up movement has reportedly raised in access of $24 million.
Flip the page to view Tchen’s statement.
