Tristan Coopersmith wants you to know she had some good reasons for sitting on a letter containing her sexual misconduct accusations against former boss Charlie Walk for three months.
Following “The Four” panelist’s announcement he was exiting the Fox series on Wednesday after Coopersmith came forward, ET Insider sat down with with Walk’s former employee to discuss her reasons for publishing her open letter earlier this week, which she says she wrote in November.
“I don’t think there’s a convenient time to share something that’s hard to share,” Coopersmith said. “I wrote that letter as part of my own therapeutic process, back when the original Harvey Weinstein allegations come out. Truly something was unlocked in me, and an experience I had put away for over a decade all came flooding back. And it was completely unexpected.”
“And then I went to the Women’s March and I was profoundly impacted by that experience,” Coopersmith continued. “The word’s of Viola Davis really hit home with me. And I realized, I needed to share my truth. And I realized I needed a reason to share it on a broader scale. I needed a purpose. And so my purpose in sharing it was to continue the conversation.”
Coopersmith, who worked for Walk eight years ago and has since founded the women’s wellness studio Life Lab, said that the Republic Records Group president (who was placed on leave at the company on Wednesday) made “lewd comments about my body and [shared] fantasies of having sex with me.”
In the letter, titled “#MeToo: An Open Letter to Charlie Walk,” Coopersmith went on to say that the music mogul would send her sexual text messages and touch her inappropriately during business dinners.
“Then there was that event at your swank pad when you actually cornered me and pushed me into your bedroom and onto your bed,” said Coopersmith, who was 27 at the time. “The bed you shared with your wife … your wife who was in the room next door. You being drunk and me being 6 inches taller was my saving grace.”
Representatives for Walk did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on Coopersmith’s interview.