Forgiveness Transformed Julie Chen Moonves. It Can Change You Too
By Movieguide® Contributor
TV personality and journalist Julie Chen Moonves used to wish for the fall of her enemies, but now, she gives them a hug.
“I went to church to God to get revenge,” Moonves confessed on an episode of PRAISE on TBN.
“For me, about the betrayal that I felt from two co-hosts who I really felt were my sisters, I felt like ‘I’m so mad. They didn’t get rid of me Season 1, but they got rid of me now.’” Moonves said, referring to her 2018 exit from THE TALK show, where she served as a host for eight seasons.
Moonves told E! News she was forced to leave the show after two of her co-hosts said they wouldn’t return for Season 9 if Moonves did.
“And then suddenly, I started studying the Bible. Before I know it, God is changing me from the inside out. So I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m supposed to love my enemies,”’ she said.
“These women weren’t quite my enemy, but it felt like that. I was like, ‘Oh, how do you do that?’ Oh, love everybody. Oh, turn the other cheek. I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll try,’” the BIG BROTHER host said.
Moonves didn’t fully embrace turning “the other cheek” at first.
“I was kinda a phony about it for a while. I thought like, ‘Okay, maybe if I pray out loud for them, I can fool God. Like he doesn’t really know what’s in my cold heart. In that one spot that’s still mad.’
“But slowly, over time, God softened my heart, opened it. And it was so wonderful because then, like, I have run into one of those two people a number of times, and we laugh now. We laugh because I know I remember the good times she and I had together,” Moonves said.
Moonves also texted the other former co-host a nice message, and she sent a friendly reply.
Before Moonves found God, she said she was a “self-absorbed, career-minded, vain, gossipy, fun to be with, but probably kind of a shallow person.” Now, she believes a relationship with God is more important than anything.
About forgiveness she said, “It was so powerful for me to let go of that bitter angry side because I know I can run into anyone and everyone who I felt, you know, had wronged me and give them a hug,” Moonves said with a smile.
Movieguide® previously reported how Moonves forgave another former co-worker:
She recalled, “I know God says to forgive. So I called her, she answered. We laughed. We buried the hatchet. And today we’re probably closer than ever. Leah did try to apologize to me a year after our friendship blew up, but I was too hard-hearted to accept it. Without faith in my life, I didn’t understand the importance of forgiveness, but the Bible tells us very clearly to forgive one another.”
“I don’t know if I could’ve reconciled if I didn’t have God in my life,” she said.
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