Gerlado Rivera and Bette Midler. Image by Getty/Forward Montage

(JTA) — Television host Geraldo Rivera apologized to Bette Midler for an incident in which she says he groped her.

“Although I recall the time @BetteMidler has alluded to much differently than she, that does not change the fact that she has a right to speak out & demand an apology from me, for in the very least, publically embarrassing her all those years ago. Bette, I apologize,” Rivera tweeted on Friday.

Although I recall the time @BetteMidler has alluded to much differently than she, that does not change the fact that she has a right to speak out & demand an apology from me, for in the very least, publically embarrassing her all those years ago. Bette, I apologize.

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— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) December 1, 2017

Rivera also tweeted: “27 years ago I wrote a tawdry book depicting consensual events in 1973-45 years ago-I’ve deeply regretted its distasteful & disrespectful tone & have refrained from speaking about it-I’m embarrassed & profoundly sorry to those mentioned-I have & again apologize to anyone offended.”

Rivera’s apology came after Midler tweeted a clip of a 1991 interview in which the Jewish actress and singer tells Barbara Walters that Rivera violently assaulted her the first time they met.

On Twitter, Midler called the rediscovered video a “gift from the universe to me.”

Tomorrow is my birthday. I feel like this video was a gift from the universe to me. Geraldo may have apologized for his tweets supporting Matt Lauer, but he has yet to apologize for this. #MeToo pic.twitter.com/TkcolFWfA2

— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) November 30, 2017

Last week Rivera tweeted a defense of Matt Lauer, the former host of the Today show, noting that “News is a flirty business & it seems like current epidemic of #SexHarassmentAllegations may be criminalizing courtship & conflating it w predation.” He later apologized for that tweet.

Rivera, who hosted multiple tabloid-style talk shows for decades and is now a contributor on Fox News, is the son of a Puerto Rican father and a Jewish mother.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

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