In a recently unearthed interview with Barbara Walters from 1991, gay icon Bette Midler accused Geraldo Rivera of drugging and groping her.
Shortly after Matt Lauer was fired from NBC News after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, Rivera took to Twitter to seemingly defend Lauer from the accusations while also insinuating that the accusers were untrustworthy.
Related: Bette Midler just tossed so much shade at Kevin Spacey it almost caused an eclipse
“News is a flirty business,” Rivera wrote in one tweet, while adding “some victims are motivated by more than justice” if they accept a settlement from the accused or their employer.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Sad about @MLauer great guy, highly skilled & empathetic w guests & a real gentleman to my family & me. News is a flirty business & it seems like current epidemic of #SexHarassmentAllegations may be criminalizing courtship & conflating it w predation. What about #GarrisonKeillor?
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 29, 2017
#SexHarassment allegations should require: 1-made in a timely fashion-say w/n 5 yrs. 2-some contemporaneous corroboration, like witnesses, electronic or written communications. W $ settlements in multi-millions slight chance exists some victims are motivated by more than justice
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 29, 2017
Jezebel wondered why Rivera was so defensive about allegations of sexual abuse and then they unearthed the video of Midler’s interview.
At the time, Rivera had released a “tell-all” book titled, Exposing Myself (natch). In the autobiography, Rivera describes the encounter with Midler, writing, “We were in the bathroom, preparing for the interview, and at some point I put my hands on her breasts.”
Related: Watch rare footage of Bette Midler’s 1971 NYC gay bathhouse performance
Midler, however, shared a completely different version of the encounter.
“Geraldo and his producer came to do an interview with me, in the ‘70s, in the early ‘70s. This was when he was very hot,” she told Walters. “He and his producer left the crew in the other room, they pushed me into my bathroom, they pushed two poppers under my nose, and proceeded to grope me…I did not offer myself up on the altar of Geraldo Rivera. He was unseemly.”
And in a remarkable example of the power of rape culture at the time, Walters seems unfazed by the allegation and Midler laughs it off at the end.
