Chris Cuomo Offers Rare Interview Since 'Embarrassing' Fall from Grace: 'Living in the Past Is Poisonous' (Exclusive)

The reenergized NewsNation anchor, once the crown jewel of CNN primetime, shares how war trauma and family scandal shaped his focus on mental health

Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo pops up on Zoom, inching closer to the camera while sharing his views, unsolicited, on Trump’s latest Cabinet picks. The 54-year-old sounds every inch the same fast-talking, outspoken journalist who dominated TV screens more than two decades. But today the focus isn't Trump, his administration, or even the fact that Cuomo, somewhat unbelievably, voted for his brother Andrew Cuomo, the embattled former governor of New York, as a write-in candidate for president on Election Day.

Instead, Cuomo is ready to consider his past — marked by both award-winning acclaim and career-altering scandal — and explore what it’s taken to land on his feet after being terminated by CNN in 2021.

For the first time in a while, Cuomo has agreed to revisit his public fall from grace and what he describes as the most embarrassing and disheartening time in his life. His demeanor is classic Cuomo: he’s as defensive and combative as he is candid and reflective.

“I don’t like doing interviews,” he confesses. But after insight he's gleaned from years of therapy, he shares his thoughts.

Related: CNN Terminates Chris Cuomo Over Involvement in Defending Andrew Cuomo: 'Not How I Want My Time at CNN to End'

“I wish it didn’t happen that way,” he says about being ousted from CNN after reports surfaced that he'd assisted in his brother Andrew's defense against sexual harassment allegations. “Is it fair? What difference does it make?”

Sitting inside his East Hampton home in New York, his pups Eliza, Tennessee and Alabama, barking intermittently off-screen, he’s casually dressed and animated, prone to running his hands through his gray hair while considering talking points.

“It wasn’t an accurate depiction, explanation or description [of what happened]. I never kept any secrets about what I was doing,” he says, adding with a hint of edge: “You don’t have to believe me.”

On Dec. 1, 2021, the host of Cuomo Prime Time was suspended “indefinitely, pending further evaluation,” after the New York Attorney General’s Office released a trove of documents revealing he was involved in shaping the defense of his older brother, who was accused of sexually harassing over a dozen women. Cuomo was dismissed from CNN on Dec. 4.

By March, Andrew, 66, had publicly apologized but denied the allegations, eventually resigning in August 2021. On Jan. 26, 2024, the U.S. Justice Department concluded in a settlement agreement obtained by PEOPLE that he subjected his victims over an eight-year period to sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, and unwelcome, non-consensual misconduct. Through his attorney, Rita Glavin, he denied any wrongdoing, per the LA Times.

Related: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Resigns: 'Let Government Get Back to Governing'

“I’ll always help my family,” Cuomo maintains when asked if he has any regrets surrounding his decisions at the time.

“I don’t see how it serves me,” he says. “I knew it wouldn't be a popular idea with some, but I don't judge how I take care of my family through the lens of how other people will feel about it.”

Despite his best efforts to convince his brother to rest on his laurels and seek more "personal fulfillment" these days, he says that the former governor is forever committed to continued public service, ingrained in him by their late father Mario, the 52nd governor of New York.

“I’m proud of him,” Cuomo says of Andrew. “He’s been pretty straightforward about his thoughts and feelings about the allegations, and that's good enough for me.”

Cuomo says he wholeheartedly believes the key to life is to move forward. “Other than worry, regret and living in the past is very poisonous because you can't change it,” he says, pushing back when pressed on the subject of whether he leveraged his media contacts to dig up information on his brother's accusers.

“Have you ever heard anyone in the media say that I reached out to them and asked them for any kind of favor for my brother?” he asks. “It is demonstrably false."

“I didn't lie to anybody about what I was doing to help my brother, and I wasn't going after any of his accusers, and I wasn't even fundamental to his process. So, if I abused my position to help my brother, you don't think the people who are involved in that would've outed me?" On the contrary, he says: "Nobody told the media anything.”

In 2021, Cuomo himself faced the fallout from an allegation of sexual misconduct when an anonymous claim by a former junior colleague at ABC News surfaced around an alleged 2011 incident.

Although Cuomo, who worked at ABC from 2000 until he moved to CNN in 2013, denied the allegation, the situation reportedly accelerated the end of Cuomo’s time at the cable news network.

A spokesman for Cuomo disputed the woman's account in a statement shared with PEOPLE in February 2022, writing: "As Mr. Cuomo has stated previously, the allegations in the anonymous letter are false ... He was never asked about the allegations prior to being terminated nor given an opportunity to respond to the allegations."

Related: Chris Cuomo Accuser Claims He Assaulted Her After Offering Lunch Meeting — Not True, He Says

Another alleged incident, as recounted in a September 2021 guest column published in the New York Times, made headlines when Shelley Ross, a veteran television news journalist at ABC, wrote that Cuomo had grabbed and squeezed her buttocks at a New York City bar in 2005 during a going-away party for their colleague. “I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,” Ross claims Cuomo said.

He allows, “I took accountability [for the Ross incident] at the time — when the story came out. I wish her the best."

That's as far as Cuomo's interested in rehashing the matter, and he bristles at the suggestion he repent publicly, as Ross encouraged in the Times column, or tap into his own experience when reporting on issues around sexual harassment. “I think there are a lot better people to focus on as evidence of the problem and the solution than me," he says.

It's been seven years since the start of the #MeToo Movement and though strides have been made in raising awareness about sexual harassment and abuse, Cuomo believes society has more work to do.

“I believe in it. The whole point, the whole virtue of #MeToo was to try to create change in institutions and systems," he says. "Seems to me we've been really heavy on the allegation side and really light on the follow-up side of how these institutions have changed."

In 2022, Cuomo served CNN with a $125 million arbitration demand, claiming his Dec. 4 termination was unlawful and that his former employer’s handling of the matter damaged his reputation. He says he’s still in litigation — something he feels he was “forced into” by his desire to prove them wrong.

Related: Chris Cuomo Seeking $125 Million in Arbitration Months After Being Fired by CNN

Since the wrongful termination suit is still open, Cuomo says he's limited in what he can share. “Obviously when someone's in litigation, they can't talk about their litigation, and it compromises the process. It creates the ability to pervert and twist the truth,” he says. “So, you don't do that, but it comes off like a hedge."

What's more, he says, "Asking me to give opinions on what's fair, what's forgiveness, what's justice — it's not my place. It's just not my place.”

Still, Cuomo has fond memories of his time at CNN and doesn't begrudge his former colleagues. “I miss it. I wish them well. I hold no grudge against anybody there, and I'm sorry about the way my time ended there," he says. "But you only live going forward, and CNN is part of my past.”

Cuomo says therapy helped him move on, along with an innate desire not to look back. “You get up. You get up, you get over yourself, you get help. That’s what you do. Everybody struggles. I am not special by any stretch of the imagination,” he says, adding, “Just imagine if you were an identifiable source of unjustified celebration and unjustified condemnation on a regular basis.”

While the events surrounding his 2021 firing and its aftermath were deeply painful, it doesn't compare with some of the things he's witnessed as a journalist over the years. "I wouldn't trade 'bad stuff' with anybody. I’ve seen so much worse," he says. "I cover Gaza and Ukraine and what Israel has been dealing with, and I see what it is to have people really targeting you, really coming after you… I’m going to be OK.”

One particularly haunting personal experience, says Cuomo, happened in January 2007 when he almost died while covering the war in Baghdad. While working at ABC News, he narrowly escaped harm when an armored Humvee he was riding in was struck by a roadside bomb. He was trapped inside the vehicle while U.S. military police exchanged gunfire with insurgents.

“I started having really weird dreams after it, and I went to see somebody, and they prescribed a pediatric dose [of anti-anxiety medication]. Turns out that even though I'm 230 pounds, I'm pretty sensitive to medication," he shares.

Years later, he says his doctor believed the antidepressant Zoloft would be a better fit. At the time, Cuomo recalls saying, “Give me the full dose, I want as much as you can take,” acknowledging it was “typical, dopey alpha male thinking.”

Today, he considers Zoloft a "tremendous tool" and equates it to a "life coach" that contributes to his wellness and offers relief.

“It helps with my highs and lows,” he says. “It’s part of my daily regime and another aspect of my life. For me, I think it’s been a part of the equation of helping me cope with what life brings my way. You try whatever you think can help that won’t hurt. I mean, that’s pretty much the way I go through it.”

Cuomo doesn't claim to have all the answers, and shares that he's constantly seeking self-improvement. “I am flawed and flailing. I’m not a leader or role model. I never tell people to be like me,” he says. “I tell people what I’ve learned about life and how to do things better, and there are often things I don’t do well. But therapy is a great opportunity for me to have somebody help me see what I don’t see in myself."

Honestly, he says, "It’s the best gift I’ve ever given myself.”

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Cuomo is eager for others to enjoy the same gift. While he says society often stigmatizes those who seek mental health care and medication, he wants to change that mindset. “You’re not supposed to say you are on medication. Why? Because people will think you’re crazy," he says.

"There's no question that when some people read this, they'll relate to it and appreciate that it's out there. But there are just as many and more who will say, ‘I knew there was something wrong with that guy. Oh wow, he's on that? Oh, he's crazy. Oh, who knew? That’s really sad. That's weird. Therapy? What's wrong with that guy?’ And I get it."

Still, he explains, “I'm not going to let that restrict me.”

Cuomo is used to being mischaracterized or having some of his words misunderstood. When he told Anthony Scaramucci in a podcast last year, “I had to accept [my firing] because I was going to kill everybody, including myself," some took his words literally. Instead, Cuomo explains, he was being figurative.

"'Cuomo wanted to kill himself.' Those were the headlines," he says, shaking his head when asked if he had suicidal thoughts. "There's no way you pass a journalism test if you read the quote that way and are asked to analyze it. But it passes muster because we’re sensationalists."

For the record, he says, “No, I did not admit that I wanted to kill myself. It’s a hyperbolic notion, but I don’t mean to cheapen anyone’s struggle that leads people to suicidal ideation. I've covered it. I've lived it with people close to me. I've lost people. I don't want to cheapen that with, ‘Oh, I lost my job, and I thought about killing myself.’ I never thought that. I've always known that I am ridiculously fortunate.”

He adds, “I think your perspective is that I owe a pound of flesh. I am not surprised that you are fixated on my past. I get it, I get what your job is,” he says.

By his measure, however, he's already paid a price.

“You think people want accountability? I got it. I lost my job. I was publicly humiliated and chased around by paparazzi for months. I apologized then. The consequences are as severe as can be mustered in the moment, and then forgotten for all but the ones who have to deal with them,” he says. “I went from being the number one show at the biggest platform in the world to nowhere. I’ll never get that back.”

But Cuomo didn’t quit, and has been able to muscle back to where he feels he can best be of service. He returned to cable news on NewsNation less than a year after his termination, and is relishing his new chapter. His weeknight broadcast CUOMO, a daily talk show, is the top-rated program on the network. “It’s an opportunity to provide a service to critical-thinking independents,” he says about the gig. “They insist on fairness.”

Their mission and the pursuit of fairness is something Cuomo appreciates. He views journalism as an act of faith in the future and to wants to help people, he says. “It’s not about loving doing it. No, I don’t love it,” he admits. “I think everyone is tired of the s--- show.”

At the end of the day, Cuomo doesn’t care what people think about him. The only thing that truly matters is his family, and it pains him to consider the toll these last few years have taken on his wife Cristina, 54, and their kids Bella, 21, Mario, 18, and Carolina, 14. “This business is very unfair to your family, and nobody gives a damn,” he says.

They were there during his darkest days, and Cuomo is filled with gratitude. “I leaned on them," he says. "I didn’t know the impact it was having at the time. I love my kids. I love my family."

As he awaits resolution on his pending legal case, he looks forward to continuing to build a fulfilling life with those he loves and nurturing a thriving career at NewsNation. "Do I want to be in litigation forever? No. Do I want to move forward? Yeah,” he says. "It doesn’t mean I don’t care about what happened. I care very deeply."

But Cuomo's more than ready to move on from narratives of the past. He says plainly: "That was then. Live and learn."