Julie Chen Claims Same Cohost Tried to Get Her Fired From The Talk Twice

While speaking on Radio Andy, Chen Moonves addressed allegations in her new audiobook that two of her cohosts gave the network an ultimatum about her appearing on the show following sexual misconduct allegations against her husband, Les Moonves. She explained that since the book's release, she learned even more about what allegedly went down.

"You know, here is what I've found out since I've been promoting But First, GOD, which is one of those two people apparently spearheaded trying to get rid of me season one," said Chen Moonves.

"Wow," responded host Andy Cohen.

"Leah [Remini] reached out to me and she was like, 'Listen, I gotta own my part in what I did, what I tried to do season one, but it was so-and-so's idea to get rid of you.' And I said, 'I never knew but that tracks.'"

"Hollywood is a nasty town," responded Cohen.

The only two cohosts who were on the show during its first season as well as Chen Moonves' last were Sharon Osbourne and Sara Gilbert.

The Big Brother host announced her exit from the talk show just nine days after her husband stepped down from CBS following assault and harassment accusations in 2019. Moonves told The New Yorker that he recognized three of the sexual encounters detailed in Ronan Farrow's New Yorker exposé but said they were consensual; Chen has always supported her husband.

Calling herself "collateral damage" in her book, she went on to say "the decision to leave the show was made for me." Later in the book, she addressed her exit more specifically, saying it came "when my life and my husband's life was turned upside down."

"I was all set to get back to work and launch Season 9. But the day before we were set to premiere I got a call and I was told with my name and my husband's name being in the headlines and all this chaos, two of my co-hosts called the powers at CBS and said, 'If Julie shows up to work tomorrow, we're not coming in,'" she claimed. "So, I was basically told, 'Please don’t come back to work anymore at The Talk.'"

She also claimed Remini tried to get her fired during the show's first season, recalling a time she returned from a vacation and felt a "very, very icy" vibe in the studio.

"Only to find out that a couple of my cohosts, while I was away, went to the network and said, 'We can't work with Julie anymore. She's too uptight. She's not one of us. If she stays, we go,'" she then claimed, blaming her "uptight" demeanor on the fact she was a moderator for the show and the only one wearing an earpiece.

"And they ended up leaving and I ended up staying," she continued. "But what was so hurtful and challenging about this time was that one of the people who left was someone who I became like overnight best friends with ... and that was Leah Remini. We were buddies. We were like going on vacation together, and when she went to the network with this request, I felt betrayed."

She said she mended fences with Remini after not speaking for eight years.

Her audiobook is available now.