It’s a puzzling contradiction: Fox News host Bill O’Reilly paid an eye-popping $32 million to a woman who accused him of sexual harassment and something mysteriously described as a “nonconsensual sexual relationship.” Yet he says he did nothing wrong, and settled only to shield his children from his bad publicity.
Why would the fallen king of the “No Spin Zone” pay so much for something he didn’t do? The phrase “nonconsensual sexual relationship” may be key, said attorneys who spoke with TheWrap.
Lis Wiehl, the woman who received the settlement, was a Harvard law school graduate and attorney who worked as a legal analyst on O’Reilly’s show from 2001 to 2016. The New York Times said her accusations against him included “repeated harassment, a nonconsensual sexual relationship and the sending of gay pornography and other sexually explicit material to her.”
O’Reilly paid the $32 million out of his own pocket to settle the claim in January, said the Times, which broke the news of the payment over the weekend.
“One possible reason [for O’Reilly to settle] is there was either an assault or rape,” said New Jersey employment lawyer Nancy Ericka Smith, who represented Gretchen Carlson in the sexual harassment lawsuit that toppled O’Reilly’s former boss, Roger Ailes, and won her client a $20 million settlement.
“‘Nonconsensual’ sounds more like the language that is used in the criminal statutes. … If you don’t consent, it’s a forced sex act,” Smith said. “That is extreme and can cause unbelievable harm and certainly would cause him embarrassment. That’s one possible reason.”
Debra Katz, a long-time employment lawyer in Washington, D.C., said there’s another possible explanation. She interpreted Wiehl’s allegation of “nonconsensual sex” to refer to a type of sexual harassment known as an “unwelcome” sexual relationship, not rape. “The woman may go along with it, because they are coerced to do it, so it’s not consensual. It’s not rape, it’s a coerced sexual relationship.”
She called the $32 million payment “jaw-dropping.” Smith said it might be the highest out-of-court sexual harassment settlement for an individual accuser ever.
Supervisors who have sex with employees often say it was consensual, if the employees agreed to the sex. But sex harassment law allows victims to argue they were coerced and the sex is “unwanted,” because they feared repercussions for refusing, said CUNY Law School professor and employment law expert Rick Rossein.
“The law recognizes that, sooner or later, a person may acquiesce in demands or requests for sex, consenting due to fear of economic or career reprisal, despite the fact that the sexual advances were unwelcome,” Yale Law School employment law professor Viki Schultz told TheWrap. Unwelcome sex is still sexual harassment in the workplace, she said.
We may never know what happened between O’Reilly and Wiehl, and that is by design.
The ousted “O’Reilly Factor” host said he did nothing wrong to her, and his spokesman said that Wiehl had signed a sworn affidavit “renouncing all allegations against” O’Reilly. The settlement required Wiehl to agree not to sue Mr. O’Reilly, Fox News or 21st Century Fox, and to agree to the destruction of all text messages, photos, and other communications between the pair.
Smith and Katz said O’Reilly may have paid such a high amount to make sure the evidence would be destroyed.
“I don’t blame Ms. Wiehl at all,” Smith said, but she added that destroying the evidence hurts “other women [who] could have subpoenaed that evidence in other cases. Because evidence of the same person harassing other victims is evidence of sexual harassment.”
Katz called the destruction-of-evidence requirement “just another technique to conceal recidivist, unlawful, predatory behavior.”
Six women are known to have settled sex harassment claims against O’Reilly from 2002 to 2017: Fox News junior producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, “The O’Reilly Factor” producer Andrea Mackris, Fox Business Network host Rebecca Gomez Diamond, Fox News anchor Laurie Dhue, Fox News on-air personality Juliet Huddy, and Wiehl. Mackris was paid $9 million, but the other amounts are unknown, according to the New York Times.
Professor Schultz called Wiehl’s $32 million settlement “extremely high” compared to the average employment discrimination settlement of $54,000 found in a 2007 study of federal magistrate courts in Chicago. Mitsubishi Corp.’s payment of $34 million to settle the federal government’s 1996 sexual harassment lawsuit against the company might be the largest sexual harassment settlement, but that case was brought on behalf of more than 350 women, not just one woman, Schultz said.
Timeline of Fox Sexual Harassment and Other Scandals, From Roger Ailes to Bill O'Reilly (Photos)
The sudden ousting of Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz and the suspension of Fox Business Host Charles Payne this week are the latest signs of a sea shift in the Murdoch-run entertainment giant in its response to allegations of sexual harassment and other questionable behavior by executives and on-air talent.
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July 6, 2016: Gretchen Carlson files lawsuit against Roger Ailes Former “Fox & Friends” anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes, who denied her claims.
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July 9, 2016: Six other women claim Ailes harassed them Former Republican National Committee field adviser Kellie Boyle and model Marsha Callahan were among the six women who accused Ailes of previous harassment. Ailes denied the claims.
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July 19, 2016: Megyn Kelly says she was sexually harassed by Ailes Amid an external law firm’s investigation into the multiple claims against Ailes, then primetime host Megyn Kelly told investigators that she had been harassed by Ailes years ago. Kelly wrote in her memoir about talking to investigators about the allegations.
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July 21, 2016: Ailes resigns Fox News announced that Ailes had resigned as network chairman after two decades of dominating cable news, walking away with a $40 million severance package.
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Jan. 10, 2017: Bill O’Reilly settlement comes to light News surfaced that the “O’Reilly Factor” host had previously settled with Juliet Huddy, a Fox News employee who claimed he tried to derail her career after she rebuffed his romantic advances.
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March 8, 2017: Fox News settles with Tamara N. Holder Fox News paid former on-air contributor Tamara N. Holder more than $2.5 million following allegations that Fox News Latino vice president Francisco Cortes tried to coerce her into performing oral sex on him.
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March 24, 2017: Fox News comptroller Judy Slater sacked Fox News has fired longtime comptroller Judy Slater after an internal investigation concluded she had engaged in a pattern of racist comments and behavior; several of the employees later filed lawsuits against the network over the incidents.
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April 1, 2017: Claims against O’Reilly settled for $13 million A New York Times investigation found that O’Reilly and Fox News had paid $13 million in total to five women who had worked or appeared on “O’Reilly Factor” over the years and made claims of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior.
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April 3, 2017: Another lawsuit against Ailes and Fox News Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky filed a lawsuit accusing Ailes of sexually harassing her. She also alleged that Fox News co-president Bill Shine retaliated against her for making the claims. Ailes denied the allegations, and Shine declined to comment.
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April 19, 2017: Fox News cuts ties with O’Reilly Fox News announced that O’Reilly would not return to the network following its external investigation into claims of sexual harassment.
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April 21, 2017: Debbie Schlussel claims Sean Hannity invited her to his hotel Former Fox News guest Debbie Schlussel claimed that primetime host Sean Hannity had once invited her back to his hotel after an event they attended, and that she was never invited back to Hannity's show after she rebuffed his advances. The host denied the claims. Schlussel later clarified that she did not consider the encounter to constitute sexual harassment. "I thought he was weird and creepy," she told LawNewz.
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April 24, 2017: Andrea Tarantos files her own lawsuit Andrea Tantaros, a former host of the Fox show “The Five,” filed a new lawsuit against Ailes, Shine and other network executives, claiming that an extensive online harassment campaign had been waged against her. Fox News sought arbitration and called Tantaros “not a victim” but “an opportunist.”
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May 1, 2017: Bill Shine resigns Following Roginsky and Tarantos’ lawsuits, Fox News announced that Shine was exiting the network.
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May 19, 2017: Bob Beckel fired at Fox News Fox News fired “The Five” co-host Bob Beckel after he was accused of making an insensitive remark to an African-American employee. Fox News human resources took less than 48 hours to investigate the incident and recommend dismissal, a network executive told TheWrap.
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June 19, 2017: Investigation by the state of New York The New York State Division on Human Rights launched an investigation into Fox News, over her sexual harassment claims by former “O’Reilly Factor” guest commentator Wendy Walsh against O’Reilly, Walsh’s attorney Lisa Bloom said. O’Reilly has denied Walsh’s claims.
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July 3, 2017: Fox Sports fires Jamie Horowtiz Jamie Horowitz was abruptly ousted from his position as president of Fox Sports National Networks amid allegations of sexual harassment against Horowitz, an individual familiar with the matter told the New York Times. Horowitz’s attorney denied any misconduct.
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July 6, 2017: Fox Business suspends Charles Payne Charles Payne, the host of Fox Business’ “Making Money,” was suspended by the network due to an investigation over a three-year relationship with a married political analyst who appeared as a guest on Fox Business and Fox News, the Los Angeles Times reported. Payne denied allegations of sexual harassment, calling them an “ugly lie.”
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Here’s everything you need to know about accusations that the company has faced so far
The sudden ousting of Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz and the suspension of Fox Business Host Charles Payne this week are the latest signs of a sea shift in the Murdoch-run entertainment giant in its response to allegations of sexual harassment and other questionable behavior by executives and on-air talent.