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By the numbers, ABC News is thriving. Network news president Kim Godwin has notched, or at least maintained, several wins since taking over in May 2021. ABC News is still the leading broadcast news network, with the number one show in the morning (Good Morning America) and at night (World News Tonight With David Muir). Ask people inside ABC News what’s going on, however, and few will start with the ratings, as the network has found itself in the headlines in recent months over a raft of controversies and crises. Most notably, an extramarital affair between T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach, the coanchors of GMA3, the third hour of GMA, played out in the tabloids. As the New York Post declared in a front-page headline: “Good Moaning America!”
Godwin, initially concluding that a relationship between two consenting adults wasn’t in violation of company policy, decided to keep the anchors on air even after the news of their affair broke in late November. At one point the hosts appeared to make a joke about the scandal; the following week, Godwin benched them, and by late January, they were out. More recently, New York published a story about the “Horned Up” office culture at ABC News and suggested that relationships at the network a decade back were tied to some people’s career advancements. Meanwhile, frustrations with Godwin, both related to the GMA3 scandal and her broader leadership, have been aired by Puck and the Daily Beast, complaints exacerbated by the perception among staffers that ABC News wasn’t pushing back aggressively against the bad press. Publicly, Godwin’s voice was nowhere to be found as the stories piled up—in fact, Godwin has rarely engaged with the media in her time at ABC News, giving only three interviews in nearly two years at the helm.
“It’s very easy to Monday-morning quarterback and second-guess when you don’t know what you don’t know, and frankly you’ll never know, because we’re not going to litigate it publicly,” Godwin recently told me of the Holmes-Robach situation over coffee at the Mandarin Oriental lounge, her first interview this year. “We ended up where we needed to be, and I’m very comfortable with that decision.”
Godwin was similarly reticent when asked whether she or her team should have pushed back harder against the New York story. Godwin emphasized that she “didn’t have any insight into” much of what was reported. “It’s hard for me to go back and try to figure out what happened before I got there. All I can do is focus on right here, right now, this is the culture,” and “there’s a zero-tolerance policy now,” she said.
Her response to me was similar to the one she’s given internally, which has left some employees unsatisfied. Multiple people I spoke to want to see Godwin more vigorously defending the organization as a whole, regardless of whether the issues in question happened on her watch. A recurring staff complaint about Godwin’s stewardship seems to center on communications—a perceived lack of transparency or clarity—on everything from potential layoffs to editorial vision. Sitting down with her in a booth overlooking Central Park, I tried to get a better sense of why.
Godwin is the first Black woman to serve as a president of a major broadcast news division. Her historic appointment came at a tumultuous time for the network, amid a lawsuit accusing Michael Corn, the former top producer of GMA, of sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment. The suit also claimed ABC did not adequately address complaints of alleged misconduct from multiple women. (The lawsuit was later dismissed.) She got off to an awkward start, telling staffers she’d asked her superiors for an independent investigation into how ABC had handled the allegations—only for staff to learn a few weeks later that Godwin’s superiors at parent company Disney were reportedly caught off guard by her public request for an outside investigation, and would pursue no such probe.
“Disney is huge, and coming in and not knowing anybody—it’s been a big learning curve, but I’ve been all in,” Godwin told me, who says she is “really stretching as an executive.” She noted the difficulty of coming in as the “first woman, the first person of color, the first outsider,” all in the midst of a pandemic. “Trailblazing is hard.” Plus, she says, her job requires presiding over “new businesses that previous presidents didn’t have to run,” such as streaming. “It’s not just the old way of, Let me just sit and watch World News Tonight. Like, there’s 15 other things that I have to get done.”
There’s also been a big corporate shake-up since she arrived, with former Disney CEO Bob Iger returning last November to replace Bob Chapek, his handpicked successor who was fired by the board. Even as Godwin says she’s kept focused on the work at ABC News, the shake-up could impact her position. The Daily Beast recently reported that Godwin, who currently reports to cochairman of Disney Entertainment Dana Walden, pushed back when her Disney superiors told her they wanted her to report to Debra OConnell, president of networks and TV business operations, who recently joined Walden’s senior leadership team. The move would put another layer between Godwin and the top brass.
Godwin had a brief laugh when I asked whether this structural matter had been resolved. “The bottom line is, I really don’t know, right? Our corporation is trying to figure it out, and trying to figure out who reports to who. What I do know is I’m still leading ABC News, and I have the support of both of my bosses,” she said. “As of this day, right now,” Godwin won’t be reporting to OConnell, she said, with the caveat, “There are a lot of moving parts, and I’m not privy to those conversations.”
Godwin’s handling of the GMA3 scandal has raised questions about her future, but Iger, at a recent dinner with top ABC talent, including George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, and Michael Strahan, affirmed his support, saying, “Kim’s success is our success, and we are invested in her,” a detail first reported by the Daily Beast. I asked Godwin whether she feels she has the right people around her to achieve that success. “It’s evolving,” said Godwin, touting the diversity of her executive team and showrunners. “Who knows how things may evolve, but we’re doing pretty darn well with the team that we have right now,” she said. “Change is hard, but I only ask for collaboration.”
But some insiders feel that Godwin is reluctant to lean on others and could be more communicative. “She’s making unforced errors because she doesn’t trust the people around her. A lot of us who want to see her succeed are just frustrated,” one longtime ABC News employee told me. Internally, people are still in the dark about the 7,000 jobs that Disney is set to eliminate, as Iger announced on last month’s earnings call. It’s unclear if ABC News will be hit hard—or left largely unscathed. Godwin says she told staff she shares their anxiety and “referred them to Bob’s note, which I thought was really well said.” But all she can do is tell people to “hold on” until decisions come down.
While Godwin says she wants people to see her as someone they can trust, a reported leak investigation conducted by Disney global security has sent a different message. I’m told staffers were interviewed as part of a search for employees leaking information, which came after a Puck article about Godwin, who suggested she had nothing to do with the probe. “I didn’t call for it” or “approve it,” she told me, while emphasizing, “confidentiality is important in all organizations.”
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Charlotte Klein
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A well-known former investigative journalist for ABC News has been arrested on a charge of “transporting” images depicting the sexual abuse of children, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
James Gordon Meek, 53, of Arlington, Virginia, who covered national security and the military, was arrested Tuesday, months after his home was searched by federal authorities.
Authorities found images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct on electronic devices taken from his home. Authorities also discovered multiple conversations in which “participants expressed enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children,” according to court papers.
He faces a charge of transportation of child pornography, which calls for a minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison, officials said. An email seeking comment was sent to Meek’s attorney.
ABC News declined to comment Wednesday. Meek resigned from ABC News last year. The FBI’s investigation was prompted by a tip from Dropbox about videos showing the sexual abuse of children found in March 2021 in an account that was associated with Meek, according to court papers. Federal authorities searched his home in April.
Investigators also found that Meek engaged with minors on platforms like Snapchat, according to court documents. A minor interviewed by law enforcement told authorities that Meek approached her through Snapchat and pressured her to provide sexually explicit photos, according to court papers.
Meek joined ABC News’ Washington bureau as an investigative producer in 2013. He previously worked for the New York Daily News and also served as senior counterterrorism adviser and investigator for the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.
He recently was a writer and narrator for “3212 Un-redacted,” a Hulu documentary released in 2021 that stemmed from a years-long investigation by ABC into the deaths of four U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Africa.
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Prince Harry is sharing new details about his fractured relationships with his father King Charles III and brother Prince William, and how his hope for a “reconciliation” has led him to speak out.
“If we can get to the point of reconciliation, that will have a ripple effect across the world,” Harry told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Michael Strahan in a new interview about his memoir “Spare.” “I genuinely believe that, and that’s kind of what is pushing me. And if that doesn’t happen, then that’s very sad.”
“Spare” — a nod to Harry’s birth order as the younger brother of William, heir to the throne — will be released on Jan. 10, nearly three years to the day that Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, shocked the world announcing their plans to “step back” as senior members of Britain’s royal family.
Since then, the couple has moved to California, where they now live with their two children, and separated themselves almost completely from royal life, becoming financially independent and pursuing their own careers.
In the wake of their departure, Harry told Strahan he does not believe the details he shares in “Spare” can make things any worse with his family.
Michael Strahan interviews Prince Harry in Los Angeles Jan. 3, 2023.
Richard Harbaugh/ABC
“I have thought about it long and hard,” Harry said. “And as far as I see it, the divide couldn’t be greater before this book.”
To the outside world Harry, 38, and William, 40, always appeared close, seemingly bonded by the death of their mother Princess Diana when Harry was just 12 and William was 15.
Harry told Strahan that privately, there was more to the brothers’ story. In his memoir, Harry refers to William as his “beloved brother and arch nemesis” and recalls verbal and even physical disputes between them.
“There has always been this competition between us weirdly,” Harry said. “Again, I think it really plays into, or is played, by the heir/spare.”
Prince William and brother Prince Harry attend the Beaufort Polo Club, June 22, 2002, in Tetbury, England.
Tim Graham/Getty Images
When asked whether he thought William was jealous of his position as the spare, Harry said yes.
“But I have more freedom than he does, right?” Harry said. “So his life is planned out for him. I have more flexibility to be able to choose the life that I wanted.”
Harry said that while the typical path for the spare is to sit “in the monarch’s shadow,” he wanted to carve a different path.
As Harry moved further down that path and eventually married Meghan, he claims William broke a longstanding “pact” between the brothers to not let their offices fight or brief the press against each other.
In “Spare,” Harry claims members of the royal institution fed stories to the press and refused to set the record straight on false reports, especially about Meghan, thereby shifting the negative spotlight on her in order to protect other royals.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry leave after attending the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Dec. 14, 2017 in London.
Pool/Getty Images, FILE
“The people that he employed broke that,” Harry said of his self-described pact with William. “But again, within the family, it’s hard because you are led to believe that if you don’t play the game, that you will be destroyed. And again, I’m the one who’s proving that that is true, right? Chose not to play the game, but they’re trying to destroy me.”
Watch Michael Strahan’s interview with Prince Harry on Monday, Jan. 9, at 7 a.m. EST on “Good Morning America” and the special, “Prince Harry: In His Own Words | Michael Strahan Reporting” at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC News Live.
In one example, Harry claims palace officials failed to correct tabloid stories alleging Meghan made William’s wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, cry in the run-up to the Sussexes’ 2018 wedding. Harry writes in “Spare,” and Meghan has said in a previous interview, that it was Kate who upset Meghan and later apologized.
“[The press] pitched the Waleses, which Kate and William are now, against the Sussexes, me and my wife. They always pitched us against each other,” Harry said. “They pitched Kate and Meghan against each other.”
PHOTO: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, July 10, 2018 in London.
Anwar Hussein/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE
When asked whether press reports of Kate and Meghan fighting disrupted the women’s relationship, Harry replied, “Without question.”
“If you read [the press coverage], it very much feeds into how you function, operate, and behave. Without question,” Harry said. “But the moment you don’t read it, you can live a truly authentic life.”
Harry said he believes the British press continues to try to “drive a wedge” between him and William, but hopes that he can reconcile with his brother.
“I hope that we will be joined at the hip again,” he said. “Because, you know, if there’s something that will terrify the British press more than anything, it’s William and I being aligned.”
Harry said he “without question” shoulders some of the responsibility for the breakdown of his relationship with William. But he added, “What people don’t know is the efforts that I’ve gone to [in order] to resolve this privately, both with my brother and with my father.”
Prince William and Prince Harry look at a statue they commissioned of their mother Diana in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, on what would have been her 60th birthday, July 1, 2021, in London.
WPA Pool/Getty Images
Neither Kensington Palace — William and Kate’s office — nor Buckingham Palace, the office of Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, have commented on the claims Harry makes in “Spare.”
ABC News reached out to Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace for response to Harry’s remarks in our interview. Kensington Palace declined to comment and Buckingham Palace has yet to respond.
According to Harry, intense press coverage and security concerns played a large part in his and Meghan’s quest to carve out different royal roles for themselves that would allow them to split their time between Canada and the U.K. while still serving the monarchy.
When the proposal was brought to the royal family, Harry said there was “zero compromise.” He added that an agreed-upon 12-month transition period completely fell apart when his own family’s security was pulled.
“I was stunned that my family would allow security to be taken away, especially at the most vulnerable point for us,” said Harry, who was living with Meghan and their son Archie in Vancouver Island, Canada, at the time. “And maybe they didn’t understand the concerns that I had. I mean, I listed them. I laid them out.”
When asked whether he thought his family didn’t understand his security concerns, or didn’t care, Harry replied, “I think probably a little bit of both.”
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge watch the RAF flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, as members of the Royal Family attend events to mark the centenary of the RAF, July 10, 2018 in London, England.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images, FILE
Harry expressed that neither he nor Meghan wanted to leave their senior royal roles, saying, “We were based in Windsor. That was where we genuinely thought we were going to spend the rest of our lives.”
Describing his and Meghan’s ideal life, he said they wanted to continue to represent the monarchy but to do so mainly outside of the U.K. so that their work wouldn’t go through what he called “the filter of the tabloids.”
“We were trying to find a different way to work, but for one reason or another, despite the fact that it already exists within the family, we weren’t allowed to do things slightly differently,” Harry said. “To still perform and work and support and represent the monarchy, but to be financially independent, to remove the supposed public interest, which the tabloids had used repeatedly to invade every single element of our life.”
Though Harry’s memoir “Spare,” rips open his view of the royal institution and his family, he said he thinks telling his story what is needed to make peace.
“I don’t think that we can ever have peace with my family unless the truth is out there,” he told Strahan. “There’s a lot that I can forgive, but there needs to be conversations in order for reconciliation, and part of that has to be accountability.”
Michael Strahan interviews Prince Harry in Los Angeles Jan. 3, 2023
ABC News
Harry said he also hopes to have a candid, private conversation with family members.
“I just hope that there’s a way that we can have a conversation that is trusted within that conversation that isn’t then spilled to the British press,” he said. “That’s where I am.”
When describing how he chose the personal, behind-the-scenes details he shares in “Spare,” Harry said he thought more about the family he has created with Meghan.
“As [with] everybody who has a large family, a family that you’ve been born into, there becomes a point when the family that you’ve created … becomes the priority over the family that you were born into,” said Harry, who wed Meghan in 2018. “So, not to say it wasn’t hard. It was very hard. But that was my thinking and the process in which I went through.”
Harry has only returned to the U.K. a handful of times since his exit in 2020, including for the funerals of his grandfather Prince Philip and, more recently, his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on the long Walk at Windsor Castle arrive to view flowers and tributes to HM Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 10, 2022 in Windsor, England.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
According to Harry, the queen never told him she was angry with him for wanting to change his royal role, but he believes she was “sad” his situation had reached that point.
“I had many, many conversations with her both in the U.K. over the years and in the run-up to the point of this change, so it was never a surprise to anybody, least of all her,” Harry said. “She knew what was going on. She knew how hard it was. I don’t know whether she was in a position to be able to change it.”
When asked whether he saw himself, Meghan and their children ever returning to the U.K. and becoming working royals again, Harry said he doesn’t think so.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala at New York Hilton on Dec. 6, 2022, in New York.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala
“Even if there was an agreement or an arrangement between me and my family, there is that third party that is going to do everything they can to make sure that that isn’t possible,” Harry said, referring to the British press. “Not stopping us from necessarily going back, but making it unsurvivable, and that’s really sad because that is essentially breaking the relationship between us.”
He added, “If there was something in the future where we can continue to support the Commonwealth, then that’s of course on the table, but there’s so much that needs to happen between now and then, and so much that can happen.”
The Duke of Sussex said he “genuinely” believes the British monarchy should continue, and that there is a place for it in the 21st century as long as it modernizes.
“I think the same process that I went through regarding my own unconscious bias would be hugely beneficial to them,” he said. “It’s not racism, but unconscious bias if not confronted, if not acknowledged, if not learned and grown from, that can then move into racism. And the way that I understand it is that we all want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”
Harry said the royals missed a “huge missed opportunity” in modernizing the monarchy through what Meghan represented as a biracial woman.
“It’s what she said to me from right from the beginning, representation,” Harry said of his wife. “And I, as a privileged white man, didn’t really understand what she was talking about.”
With his memoir, Harry said a large part of his drive to speak out stems from a hope to “change the media landscape” in the U.K., giving less status to tabloid newspapers.
“In this instance, the most popular, most read and therefore most influential newspapers in our country are tabloids,” he said. “That affects the country. That affects the construct of the country.”
Cover of the book ‘Spare’ by Prince Harry.
Random House
Harry described also wanting to more specifically change what he described as a “codependency” between U.K. tabloids and the royal family.
“There are some people, especially in the U.K., who have been led to believe that because you are a member of the royal family, somehow everyone owns you or has a stake in you,” he said. “And that’s a message that has been purely pushed out by the British tabloids, and it creates real problems within that family and that relationship.”
Harry added, “Of course, there has to be some sort of relationship, but where it’s got to now is incredibly unhealthy.”
Believing that the monarchy should continue, Harry said he hopes his efforts can help his own two children as well as current and future generations of royals.
“I also worry about other young kids within that family if this continues,” he said, referring to the royal family. “Because who’s to say that someone else doesn’t fill my shoes and that their partner, whether it’s a husband or a wife or boyfriend or a girlfriend, doesn’t get treated exactly the same as Meghan did?”
Watch Michael Strahan’s interview with Prince Harry on Monday, Jan. 9, at 7 a.m. EST on “Good Morning America” and the special, “Prince Harry: In His Own Words | Michael Strahan Reporting” at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC News Live.
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