Magazine mogul Tina Brown ‘discovered Harvey Weinstein was a raging bull lunatic’ after working together in 1999

‘I was subject to incredibly horrible bullying and abuse,’ says former Vanity Fair editor

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Tina Brown has opened up about working with Harvey Weinstein, claiming she was subject to “horrible bullying and abuse” at the hands of the disgraced Hollywood producer.

In 1999, the magazine mogul left her role as editor at Vanity Fair to work alongside Weinstein to set up Talk magazine, which ran until 2002 as a joint venture between Hearst Magazines and Miramax.

But working with Weinstein was taxing from the beginning, Brown has recalled in an interview with The Telegraph.

“I discovered Harvey was a complete raging bull lunatic very shortly after I signed on,” the Women of the World founder said before explaining that she was not surprised when the film mogul was accused of sexual misconduct.

“I was subject to incredibly horrible bullying and abuse,” Brown said, ”which wasn’t sexual but it was bullying and abuse: so the fact that he would have been using those same techniques for sexual gratification did not surprise me at all.”

Brown went on to explain that she believes sexual harassment was never an issue for her at work because she always held senior roles “and it’s about power”.

Nonetheless, she said that the #MeToo movement has prompted major changes in terms of power imbalances in the workplace.

“It’s made men realise they have to clean up their act,” she said.

“Men have had power all this time and it’s going to be uncomfortable to lose or to share it, but it’s no longer just a man’s world.”

Brown’s comments come after the publication of her memoir, The Vanity Fair Diaries, in which she made similarly damning comments about Weinstein.

“He was completely erratic and insane,” she told The Hollywood Reporter while promoting the book. “You never knew what was going to happen with him.”

“He presents himself as this gravel-voiced Hollywood entrepreneur – a latter-day Louis B. Mayer,” Brown continued.

“But when I went to work for him, I realised how different he was than his public persona. He is very secretive and paranoid, hugely jumpy about his press. The thinnest skin of anyone I’ve worked with.”

More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual abuse. His criminal trial, which was supposed to begin on 9 September, has now been pushed to January. Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.