Joan Lunden Accuses Former TV Boss of Propositioning Her and Retaliating When She Refused in Emotional New Memoir

Joan Lunden is revisiting a painful chapter from the start of her television career — and she’s doing so in unflinching detail.

In her new memoir, Joan: Life Beyond the Script, out March 3, the former Good Morning America co-anchor alleges that an early boss propositioned her during a supposed work outing — and then retaliated professionally when she refused.

Lunden, now 75, writes that while working at New York’s WABC-TV Eyewitness News in 1975, she was invited by a story editor she calls “Ted” to what he described as a team gathering on Fire Island.

“‘You should come along, Joan,’ said Ted. ‘It will be a good opportunity for you to socialize with the rest of the team,’” she recalls. “Not having any close friendships in the newsroom, I was concerned that I would feel awkward and uncomfortable, like a tagalong.”

But when they arrived, she says she discovered only two other people were present — a reporter and his girlfriend — making it clear the “work event” was, in her words, an attempted “overnight double date.”

“I was embarrassed that I’d been so naive as to let this situation unfold, and I was offended as a woman that a guy — my superior at work — thought he could get away with this!” Lunden writes. “He assumed that I would just go along with it.”

She told him directly, “‘Ted, you know this is not what I signed up for,’” adding that she hoped he would take her home. Instead, she says, he responded, “‘Look, maybe the original plan fell through, but we’re all here, so let’s just enjoy ourselves.’”

Lunden writes that she spent the night sleeping on the sofa after he allegedly pressured her to share a bedroom.

Back in the newsroom, she says the tone shifted dramatically.

“I was about to find out that h--- hath no fury like a man scorned,” Lunden writes, alleging that Ted began “killing” her stories — preventing them from airing.

“I felt vulnerable and helpless,” she says, noting that reporters were paid a base salary plus fees for each story that made it on air. “If your stories didn’t get aired, you earned less money.”

She describes the alleged retaliation as “pure revenge” and “clearly sexual harassment and sexual discrimination,” adding that her reputation also suffered because colleagues knew she had gone to Fire Island with her superior.

After months of what she describes as hostile treatment, Lunden says she consulted her agent and a lawyer, who advised her she could sue.

She then called Ted into her office.

“This has to stop. Now. I’m not putting up with it another day,” she recounts telling him. “I’ve spoken with my agent and my lawyer, and they’ve both advised me to file suit against you and WABC-TV for sexual harassment and sexual discrimination, and they say I’m going to win.”

“I could see by the look on his face that my punch had landed,” she writes.

According to Lunden, the behavior stopped after that confrontation. “I felt vindicated,” she adds. “I hope he’s reading this.”

Lunden went on to co-anchor Good Morning America from 1980 to 1997, becoming one of the most recognizable faces in morning television. With her memoir, she’s now shedding light on the obstacles she says she faced long before she became a household name.