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Julie Chen-Moonves And The Wives Of Me Too

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FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2017 file photo, Les Moonves, left, and his wife Julie Chen arrive for the Kennedy Center Honors gala dinner in Washington. Chen was absent from her talk CBS show, “The Talk” a day after a new round of sexual misconduct allegations against Moonves brought the departure of the CBS chief executive. In what was supposed to be a celebratory season premiere Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, the show's four other panelists walked out somberly without Chen, who acts as host and moderator. Sharon Osbourne choked back tears as she announced Chen would be taking time off to be with her family, and expressed support for her co-star and friend. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2017 file photo, Les Moonves, left, and his wife Julie Chen arrive for the Kennedy Center Honors gala dinner in Washington. Chen was absent from her talk CBS show, “The Talk” a day after a new round of sexual misconduct allegations against Moonves brought the departure of the CBS chief executive. In what was supposed to be a celebratory season premiere Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, the show's four other panelists walked out somberly without Chen, who acts as host and moderator. Sharon Osbourne choked back tears as she announced Chen would be taking time off to be with her family, and expressed support for her co-star and friend. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)

The #MeToo movement has put the public spotlight on not just the men who have been accused of sexual misconduct but their spouses as well.

Take the case of former CBS CEO Les Moonves and his wife, Julie Chen-Moonves. Chen-Moonves still works for CBS, as the host of the show "Big Brother." On the show, she was known before as just Julie Chen but recently has been introducing herself with her husband's surname.

A Simmons professor speaks with us about why Chen-Moonves is leaning into her last name and why the narrative may be wrong about the wives of the men accused in the #MeToo movement.

Guest

Suzanne Leonard, associate professor at Simmons University. Her latest book is "Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the Twenty-First Century" and her piece in the Los Angeles Review Of Books is "Fealty, Fortune, and the Wives of #MeToo."

This segment aired on January 25, 2019.

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