E Jean Carroll: the author and TV presenter who took on Donald Trump

E Jean Carroll has been a pioneering figure in New York’s journalism, entertainment, and literary scenes for decades.

Born in Detroit and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the former Miss Indiana University beauty queen began pitching her ideas in magazines at the age of 12.

After graduating from college, he achieved his breakthrough by publishing his first article in Don, a “witty literary quiz you invented” about Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

From there, writing assignments in Rolling Stone and Playboy it started to “leak” he said Indianapolis Monthly in 1996.

While living in Montana with her first husband, Steve Byers, and their dog, she came to New York City in 1983 to interview Fran Leibowitz for a cover story in Outside magazine.

Entranced by the bright lights of Manhattan, Mrs. Carroll decided to leave her husband and move there on the spot. “Of course, I came back for my dog,” she said. Indianapolis Monthly.

Ms. Carroll quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading magazine journalists, writing “Gonzo-style” first-person articles for Playboy and NY.

The New York Times he called it “feminism’s answer to Hunter S Thompson”.

She was hired as a writer for Saturday night liveearning an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1987.

In the 1990s, he went on to host his own cable television show. Ask E.Jean .

As her career took off, Ms. Carroll became a fixture on New York’s glitzy social scene.

She was a regular at Elaine’s, a legendary Upper East Side restaurant frequented by celebrities.

According to a profile in USA Today, Ms. Carroll mixed with literary heavyweights Normal Mailer and Gay Talese. Jackie Kennedy, then a book editor at Viking Press, was passing by.

She married former television presenter John Johnson, and later divorced in 1990.

Ms. Carroll, whose civil rape and defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump began on April 25, is probably best known for her advice column. Ask E Jeanwho ran on elle from 1993 to 2019.

Throughout hundreds of columns, Ms. Carroll helped women navigate the “rough waters” of their work, social, and sexual lives. A constant theme was that women should “never” structure their lives around men.

‘I blame Donald Trump’

In 2019, Carroll published her memoirs. Why do we need men? which was based on the work that had made her want elle readers for almost 40 years.

The book contained a list of the “horrible men” she had encountered and an explosive accusation: that she had been raped by the then President of the United States 30 years earlier.

In What do we need men for?first detailed an encounter he says he had with Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in the mid-1990s.

A random meeting between the two, who she said were casual acquaintances, led Trump to ask her help selecting a gift for “a girl.”

After the couple went shopping for a while, he allegedly pushed her into a dressing room and raped her, according to the book and court documents.

Trump’s alleged rape and his rude denials from the presidential podium have put an intense spotlight on the 79-year-old ever since.

She believed that the consequences of the accusation led elle to fire her in December 2019. “Because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my appearance and dragged me through the mud,” she said. tweeted At the time.

“I don’t blame Elle. It was the great honor of my life to write ‘Just ask E.Jean.I blame Donald Trump.”

The fashion magazine has maintained that the early termination of her contract had nothing to do with the allegations.

The ‘last horrible man’

A 2019 investigation by the new york times found evidence corroborating Ms. Carroll’s claims.

She had discussed the traumatic experience with several friends at the time. She also accused Les Moonves, the disgraced former chairman and CEO of CBS, of sexual assault.

in a trial for NY magazine, revealed that she never had sex again after her encounter with Mr. Trump, her “last horrible man.”

Months after the allegations were made public, he filed a civil suit against the president for defamation.

Trump has tried to stop the lawsuit at every turn, even enlisting the help of the Justice Department to defend him in the case while in the Oval Office.

When he claimed he had never met her, she showed a photo of them together with Ivana Trump and her then-husband John Johnson at an NBC party in 1987.

Last year, Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Trump under a New York law that allows survivors of sexual assaults the opportunity to file civil lawsuits after the statute of limitations on the alleged crimes has expired.

The new lawsuit accuses him of assault and defamation, based on his insults and nicknames, and is the basis of the April 25 trial.

In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, Ms. Carroll interviewed five women who had accused Mr. Trump of sexual assault for the Atlantic.

After nearly four years of delays, depositions and hearings, a jury will soon decide whether sexual assault can be proven 30 years later.

Now living alone in a cabin in upstate New York, Ms. Carroll has said she plans to attend every day of the trial.