Bette Midler: Geraldo has yet to apologize for drugging, groping me

Bette Midler said Thursday that Geraldo Rivera should apologize for drugging and groping her in the 1970s.

Earlier in the day, Rivera, a Fox News contributor and former talk-show host, apologized for several tweets he wrote on Wednesday that defended Matt Lauer after the NBC News host was fired over sexual harassment allegations.

“Tomorrow is my birthday. I feel like this video was a gift from the universe to me,” she tweeted along with a clip from an interview with Barbara Walters in which she describes the incident. “Geraldo may have apologized for his tweets supporting Matt Lauer, but he has yet to apologize for this.”

{mosads}

Midler added the “Me Too” hashtag to her tweet.

In the clip, Midler says Rivera and his producer came to interview her in the 1970s, and then drugged and groped her.

“He and his producer left the crew in the other room, they pushed me into my bathroom, they broke two poppers and pushed them under my nose and proceeded to grope me,” she said. “I did not offer myself up on the altar of Geraldo Rivera, he was unseemly.”

Rivera faced backlash after posting series of tweets on Wednesday defending Lauer and saying that news is a “flirty business.”

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

Fox News said Wednesday that they were “troubled” by Rivera’s statements, prompting Rivera to apologize on Thursday.

“I didn’t sufficiently explain that this is a horrendous problem long hidden,” he tweeted. “Harassers are deviants who deserve what is coming to them.”

Reaction to my tweets today on #sexharassment makes clear
I didn’t sufficiently explain that this is a horrendous problem
long hidden-Harassers are deviants who deserve what is coming
to them-Often victims are too frightened to come
forward in a timely fashion-I humbly apologize

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 30, 2017