NEW YORK (AP) — Former TV anchor Charlie Rose has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by three women following his #MeToo-era ouster from CBS News in 2017 and the cancellation of his long-running PBS show.

In the settlement, the plaintiffs said they do not attribute any “bad intent” to Rose and now realize that his conduct could be open to interpretation.

Attorneys for Rose and the women — younger employees who accused him of “predatory behavior” and “egregious and repeated sexual harassment” — filed court papers this week confirming the lawsuit had been settled. An online court filing listed the case as settled. Terms were not disclosed.

The lawsuit was set to go to trial Monday in Manhattan after years of wrangling over the women’s allegations and rejection of their claims of retaliation against Rose.

Plaintiffs Katherine Brooks Harris, Sydney McNeal and Yuqing Wei said in a statement that the litigation process and required pretrial exchange of evidence, known as discovery, allowed both sides to “better understand each other’s points of view.” .

“On reflection and having benefited from discovery, we realize that different people might interpret the conduct in different ways, and therefore we have resolved the claims,” ​​the women said. “We attribute no bad motive or malice to Charlie Rose.”

A lawyer for Rose, 82, and his production company, Charlie Rose Inc., declined to comment.

The veteran TV host has apologized for his behavior in the past, including in a statement on the eve of his firing in November 2017 after at least eight women came forward to accuse him of misconduct.

“It is critical that these women know that I hear them and I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior,” Rose said. “I am very embarrassed. I have been insensitive at times and I take responsibility for that, although I don’t think all of these accusations are true. I always felt that I was following common feelings, even though I now realize that I was wrong.”

Rose’s downfall was part of America’s #MeToo crackdown on sexual misconduct by powerful figures — a social media-fueled movement that has also brought down “Today” host Matt Lauer and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, among others.

Rose now hosts an interview show on YouTube, where his recent guests have included author Michael Lewis and broadcaster Bob Costas.

Harris, McNeal and Wei sued Rose and CBS in New York state court in May 2018, about six months after CBS fired him as an anchor on its morning show, then called “CBS This Morning.” and PBS and Bloomberg Television dropped the nightly broadcast. “The Charlie Rose Show.”

Harris was a broadcast associate at “CBS This Morning” and later served as an associate producer for Rose’s PBS show. McNeal was Rose’s executive assistant. Wei was a news associate and later assistant anchor for Rose on “CBS This Morning.”

The women, all in their 20s when they were hired, accused the much older Rose of subjecting them to repeated physical and verbal sexual harassment, including questions about their sex lives and bragging about his. They accused CBS of knowingly failing to prevent Rose’s harassment.

CBS settled in December 2018 for an undisclosed amount. The network said at the time that the women asked that the terms be kept confidential.

If the suit had gone to trial, Rose’s attorney said in court papers that he would challenge the credibility of Harris, McNeal and Wei’s claims with evidence showing they had previously expressed little or no concern about the former anchor.

Among the evidence, attorney Jonathan Bach wrote in a Nov. 13 filing, were documents showing that Wei told a CBS human resources officer that he had not experienced anything “sexually inappropriate” while working for Rose and that McNeal told her therapist at the time that she had no personal experience of being sexually harassed by Rose.

Other evidence cited by Bach showed that Harris told her therapist that any harassment from Rose was “very subtle” and that she wrote to Rose two months after working for him that his interactions with her were “always professional and respectful”.