Tavis Smiley Denies Sexual Misconduct On ‘Good Morning America’ and Responds to Verbally Abusive Workplace Claims: “I’m Not An Angry Black Man”

On Thursday, Tavis Smiley vowed to fight back against several allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace. Four days later, the late-night talk show host appeared on ‘Good Morning America’ to deny all of the accusations against him. He did, however, admit to having workplace relationships, but maintained the interactions were all consensual.

“I certainly understand people who have the viewpoint that any consensual relationship in the workplace is wrong,” Smiley told ABC News’ Paula Faris. “But there are also other points of view on this. Let me be clear: I own my company, PBS distributes my content. In our employee handbook, while we do not encourage office relationships, we do not forbid them, either. And we don’t forbid them because I don’t know where your heart is going to lead you. I don’t know who you’re going to hang out with, or date, or fall in love with (There may be) millions of Americans watching right now who met their spouse at work.”

He continued, clarifying the kind of environment he creates in his workspace, denying that it was verbally abusive.

“I have an intense environment …Some of the most intense places in our business are in control rooms around this country, that’s not for everyone, so it might be that the envionrment wasn’t good for you…I’m not an angry black man, and this notion of a hostile environment just doesn’t fit,” he said, just before denying additional claims about inappropriate messages and comments.

“I’ve never sent lewd messages to anyone. In consensual relationships, we use to text messages to communicate,” he said. “But I’ve never done that to an employee, ever.”

Amid the allegations, PBS has suspended Smiley’s show. However, the talk show host says the company failed to give him proper due process, refused to provide him with a sit-down or talk to him until he threatened legal action. When asked if he would return to the company if it reinstated his show, he said he wasn’t sure.

“PBS made a huge mistake here. They need to fix this, they need to correct it,” he said.