Les Moonves

If you have a great interest in the media field, then let us introduce you to the American media executive, Les Moonves who served around one and a half-decade as the Chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation, an American multinational media conglomerate. He resigned from his post after facing the allegations related to sexual harassment and abuse.

The 70 years old, Les married twice in his life. Also, he shares four children with both of his wives. Active in his career for a very long time, Les has accumulated a huge amount of capital. His net worth is estimated to be $700 Million as of 2019. Let’s know about Les Moonves in detail.

Early Life of Les Moonves

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Les Moonves raised under his Jewish parents. His mother, Josephine Schleifer was a nurse, whereas, his father was Herman Moonves. He grew up along with his three siblings; one sister named Melissa Moonves and one of the brothers named Jonathan Moonves.

Since a tender age, Les was so much interested in the acting field. He studied at Valley Stream Central High School and later graduated from Bucknell University in 1971. He used to enjoy learning Spanish during his student age. After his graduation, he moved to Manhattan in order to pursue his career in acting. At an early age, he appeared in the American TV series, Cannon and The Six Million Dollar Man.

Career Highlights

After graduating from the Neighborhood Playhouse, Les Moonves served as pay/cable programming at 20th Century Fox Television. Later, he grabbed the post of vice president of films and mini-series. After working for a short time, Les went to join another American production company, Lorimar Television in 1985. After that, he handled Warner Bros. Television as a CEO and president.

Les gained a huge recognition after being a part of CBS as President in July 1995. After working for nearly five years as president, he promoted to chairman and CEO of CBS in 2003. Some of his primetime shows included CSI: Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, Survivor: Guatemala, NCIS, and Cold Case. After serving 15 years in the network, he resigned on the replacement of Joe Iannello due to the allegations that touched sexual assault against him. Besides, he had also made his daily appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Allegations of Sexual Misconduct

It would surprise a lot of people that Les Moonves faced dozens of allegations of sexual harassment. While working at CBS, he had voiced support for MeToo Movement that worked against sexual harassment in the workplace. In fact, CBS also released techniques of combating sexual harassment.

In the meantime, the founding member of “Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace, Les accused to have sexual misconduct on more than six women that published on an article of Ronan Farrow. Subsequently, Moonves suspected under investigation. In September of 2018, more women raised their voices against Les and accused him of sexual harassment during the 1980s.

Les Moonves faces allegations of sexual misconduct, watch in short!!!

As soon as he denied all his sexual allegations, one of the actresses, Bobbie Phillips told the media of sexually abusing her. After the investigation went deep, Moonves was found to violating his contract with CBS that canceled his $120 Million severance pay. He was also found to be interfering in the course of his investigation. At the end of the story, Les denied all the allegations.

Married Twice In Life

As we prior mentioned, Les Moonves married twice in his life. At first, he tied the knot with his ex-wife, Nancy Wiesenfeld in 1978. They married on a private wedding ceremony. The former couple spent a blissful married life for a long time. Also, they got blessed with three children. One of them is Sara Moonves, a W Magazine style director.

After spending over two decades of married life, Les filed for the divorce in the Superior Court of Los Angeles. The reason for their divorce was said to be irreconcilable differences. During the time, the former couple was already living separately. Without the settlement of his first divorce, Les began to date Julie Chen, an American TV personality, news anchor and producer for CBS. Also, Chen hosts Big Brother, a TV reality game show.

In the year of 2004, Les went to court with an appeal for an early divorce where the reason cited to be “desire to return to the status of being single”. After some days, he exchanged his wedding vows with Chen. The couple gave birth to their first child son in 2009. Since then, the couple is spending a blissful married life with each other. As of now, they are leading their life in a beautiful house resides in Beverly Hills, California.

Net Worth – $700 Million

The former chairman and CEO of CBS, Les Moonves lost $120 Million of severance after misleading investigation and destroying evidence as he was alleged to having multiple sexual misconducts.

In the year od 2012-13, Les was reported to be a second-highly-paid director who received an annual salary of $58.8 Million and $65.4 Million respectively. He was listed as the second-highest-paid CEO who made $68.4 Million in 2017.

Currently, Les enjoys a net worth of $700 Million as per the Business Insider. Besides, he owns multiple houses in different places. He has a house in Beverly Hills, California. Also, he bought a home from Andy Heyward. He also resides in Malibu and New York City. Hence, he is spending a lavish life with his family at present.