Shelley Ross, Chris Cuomo's former boss who alleges he sexually harassed her 16 years ago, says the CNN anchor is 'no more enlightened today than he was then'

• Shelley Ross, a former ABC producer, alleged Friday that Chris Cuomo sexually harassed her in 2005.
• She told Insider Cuomo was "no more enlightened today than he was then."
• Ross said she believed Cuomo hadn't done the work to better himself since the incident.

Shelley Ross, Chris Cuomo's former boss at ABC who accused him of sexually harassing her, said the CNN anchor was "no more enlightened today than he was" when the harassment took place.

She spoke with Insider about Cuomo after writing an op-ed in The New York Times in which she said Cuomo grabbed her butt in 2005 at a going-away party for a colleague at a Manhattan bar.

Ross, who was the executive producer of an ABC entertainment special at the time and previously worked as Cuomo's executive producer at "Primetime Live," told Insider she believed Cuomo hadn't done the work to better himself since the incident.

"I was hoping that in 15, 16 years that he had changed, but he's no more enlightened today than he was then, as demonstrated by his response," she said.

In response to Ross' op-ed Cuomo told The Times: "As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it."

Cuomo did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Ross said his response "demonstrated" that he had not grown from the incident.

"I don't acknowledge that there's anything that was 'our interaction.' I was not a participant," she said. "I was groped. And so to say that I acknowledge interaction, no. That shows a lack of enlightenment."

Cuomo sent Ross an email after the 2005 incident, in which he said he was "ashamed," and apologized to her "very good and noble husband" before apologizing to her "for even putting you in such a position," Ross said.