Former CBS anchor reportedly hospitalized and underwent 'major' abdominal surgery

Charlie Rose underwent a major abdominal surgery last month that has caused him to remain at home until his recovery is completed. This hinders the progress of his sexual harassment case filed by three former CBS News staffers.

According to Charlie Rose's attorney, the former CBS anchor felt sick on July 12, 2018, and was later on hospitalized on July 15. He finally went through the necessary procedures on July 17 and is recovering at home. The Blast shares that according to his lawyer Therese Doherty, his recovery period for the surgery is six weeks.

“Due to medical issues and the recovery period, Rose was not able to meet the August 7, 2018 deadline to answer, move against or otherwise respond to the complaint. Rose’s hospitalization and recovery have left him unable to devote the time necessary to work with counsel or prepare a defense to the claims.”

Rose was fired from the network in November 2017 after having multiple allegations of sexual harassment filed against him. The 76-year-old is being sued by Katherine Brooks Harris, Yuqing "Chelsea" Wei, and Sydney McNeal, who claimed that the anchor subjected them to "repeated, ongoing, and unlawful physical and verbal sexual harassment". According to the report, this included sexual touching, sexual comments, and sexual advances.

In the lawsuit filed last May, the three women shared that the "CBS This Morning" co-host “repeatedly sexually touched Plaintiffs, including without limitation caressing and touching their arms, shoulders, waist, and back, pulling them close to his body, and kissing them on the cheek.”.

After the lawsuit was made public by Washington Post, 27 more women stepped up and accused Rose of sexual misconduct. These incidents date way back to 1976 and were allegedly reported to the network in 1986. When the news came out, Rose responded to the report through an e-mail to the publication saying "Your story is unfair and inaccurate".

In February 2017, Charlie underwent heart surgery and returned to co-hosting his show a month later. It wasn't until eight months later that he was finally fired from his job.

He and his legal team are requesting that the deadline of his defense to September 6, and they have yet to find out if this request is to be granted by the court.