Anthony Bourdain Responds To Allegations Of Sexual Misconduct Against Mario Batali

“I’ve been sitting on stories that were not mine to tell. And feeling sick and guilty as f**k I hadn’t heard them before,” he said.
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Anthony Bourdain said he feels “guilty as fuck” for not hearing about the sexual misconduct allegations against fellow chef Mario Batali earlier.

On Monday morning, four women accused Batali of sexual misconduct. The chef and restaurateur allegedly groped them repeatedly without their consent over the span of two decades.

“It’s Batali. And it’s bad,” Bourdain tweeted Monday morning, just a few minutes after Eater reported on the allegations.

Bourdain alluded to the Eater report in a series of tweets on Sunday, tweeting that “Monday is really gonna suck.”

On Monday, fellow chef Allison Robicelli responded to Bourdain’s tweet by telling him, “today doesn’t suck. Today is the most wonderful day of the year for those who have been hurt by Batali, and all the other men just like him.”

Bourdain, however, replied that today is “not wonderful at all,” adding: “I’ve been sitting on stories that were not mine to tell. And feeling sick and guilty as fuck I hadn’t heard them before.”

When one Twitter user accused Bourdain of keeping secrets about Batali’s alleged inappropriate behavior, Bourdain denied it. He told another Twitter user that he “only started hearing shit a few weeks ago.”

Bourdain made headlines in October when his girlfriend, Italian actress and director Asia Argento, accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in 1997. Since then, Bourdain has made more of an effort to speak out against rape culture and his former “macho” persona.

“I had to ask myself, particularly given some things that I’m hearing, and the people I’m hearing them about: Why was I not the sort of person, or why was I not seen as the sort of person, that these women could feel comfortable confiding in?” Bourdain told Slate in October. “I see this as a personal failing.”

Bourdain did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s request for comment.

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