Fox News quietly paid about $4 million to a woman who accused former network host Kimberly Guilfoyle of sexual harassment, The New Yorker reported Thursday.
According to the news outlet, a young woman, who was one of Guilfoyle’s assistants at Fox News, sent company executives a 42-page confidential draft complaint in 2018 that accused Guilfoyle of repeated sexual harassment.
The article reveals that in March 2019 Fox News secretly paid an undisclosed sum to the assistant, who no longer works at the network. Mayer now says that Fox agreed to pay the woman about $4 million to buy her silence and avoid going to trial over a lawsuit.
Guilfoyle was a co-host of the political talk show “The Five” on Fox News. The network forced her out mid-contract in July 2018, and she now serves as President Donald Trump’s campaign finance chair while dating Donald Trump Jr.
The New Yorker’s article detailing the former assistant’s draft complaint corroborates previous reporting that Guilfoyle’s departure from the network was not voluntary and that sources said she was terminated following an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior, such as sexual misconduct.
Six sources have come forward saying that Guilfoyle would show colleagues personal lewd photographs of men with whom Guilfoyle had sexual relations, regularly discussed sexual matters at work, and would be emotionally abusive toward hair and makeup artists and support staff, frequently subjecting them to degrading and sexually inappropriate behavior.
Other instances the report cites from the complaint are that the assistant was required to work at Guilfoyle’s New York apartment while the network host walked around naked, was forced to listen to Guilfoyle speak incessantly about her sex life, was ordered to give Guilfoyle thigh massages and was told to submit to a Fox employee’s sexual demands.
Guilfoyle declined to be interviewed by The New Yorker but told the publication that she has “never engaged in any workplace misconduct of any kind.” The former assistant has not been publicly identified, and the draft complaint, which was never filed in court, is allegedly covered by a nondisclosure agreement.