Fox settled sexual harassment claim against O’Reilly

As Fox News reeled from the ouster of CEO Roger Ailes last July, the company’s executives settled with a former television host who alleged that the network’s most prominent personality, Bill O’Reilly, had sexually harassed her, the website LawNewz reported Monday.

Lawyers for Juliet Huddy, a longtime Fox News host, sent a letter to the network in August alleging that O’Reilly made inappropriate phone calls to her and once tried to kiss her when she visited his home, according to the report.

The letter also brought allegations against current Fox News co-president Jack Abernethy, whom she claimed retaliated against her after she rejected his advances.

Huddy, who once had a regular weekly guest spot on the top-rated “O’Reilly Factor,” alleged in a lawsuit threat obtained by LawNewz that she was removed from the primetime program “in retaliation for rebuffing Mr. O’Reilly’s advances” despite having “one of the highest rated segments.”

{mosads}Huddy, 47, joined Fox News in 1998. She claims in the lawsuit that she was also essentially demoted to Fox 5, Fox’s local New York City affiliate. She was assigned the 4:30 a.m. anchoring shift. She left the Fox affiliate in September.

The settlement was reportedly “in the high six figures.”

The news follows a reported $20 million settlement with former Fox host Gretchen Carlson, who sued Ailes directly in July, leading to his abrupt resignation following an internal investigation by 21st Century Fox two weeks later.

A Fox News spokesperson released a statement saying the letter “contains substantial falsehoods which both men vehemently denied.”