Is Mark Halperin Married? Veteran Journalist, Author Accused Of Sexual Harassment

Five women have accused veteran journalist Mark Halperin of sexually harassing them by indulging in acts such as propositioning them for sex in a report published by CNN on Thursday. The women alleged Halperin sexually harassed them while he was in a powerful position at ABC News.

These allegations were also corroborated by other women who did not experience the alleged harassment but were aware of it. Halperin currently works with MSNBC as an analyst and also makes frequent appearances on the weekday talk-show, "Morning Joe."

The allegations came into focus when the five women shared their previously undisclosed accounts with CNN.

Halperin, who has co-authored the bestselling 2008 election postmortem "Game Change," apologized Wednesday night after the allegations grabbed headlines. In a statement to CNN, he confessed to having "relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me."

"I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I'm going to take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation."

Halperin has made his mark by excelling in political journalism. However, the women spoke to CNN talked about the journalist's dark side. Three of those women said Halperin did not seek their consent and pressed an erection against their bodies while being clothed. However, the seasoned journalist denied the accusations.

Soon after the reports about allegations were published, people started tweeting about the issue. Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin slammed Halperin on the microblogging site.

Halperin has been in a live-in relationship with his longtime partner Karen Avrich, according to ArticleBio. An article published on Oct. 25, 2004, in "The New Yorker" shed light on Halperin's dependency on Avrich to catch up on the political news that he might have missed. Avrich apparently is a political junkie.

An American author and an educator, Avrich is the daughter of late Paul Avrich, who was also an author and historian of anarchism. When her father died in 2006, she took the charge of completing the biographies that he had left unfinished. Her father was writing about Emma Goldman — an anarchist political activist and writer — and Alexander Berkman — a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century. The book was titled "Sasha and Emma" and was released in 2012, according to ArticleBio.

The couple has been living together in New York since a long time and Halperin hasn't been married previously. He has shielded his personal life with Avrich from limelight but he shared the news of the birth of their baby boy, James Halperin, by posting a video and photographs via Instagram in January. He captioned the image as "James Paul "Buster" Halperin in his first on-camera role."

Halperin seemed to enjoy parenthood when he shared a beautiful family photograph of him with Avrich, James in February on Instagram.