A high-profile weekend anchor at KTLA was notably absent from the air Saturday and Sunday after the New York Daily News featured an excerpt from her new book that claims that prior to becoming the president, Donald Trump once propositioned her.
Former Fox News reporter Courtney Friel was scheduled for a vacation around her book tour beginning Monday, her publicist told TheWrap, but she did not appear for any of her regular weekend shifts on Saturday or Sunday.
Her camp isn’t responding beyond its initial statement, but according to the Daily Beast, Friel told a paparazzo on Saturday that he would need to ask KTLA about her absence from the air that day, then expressed her desire not to be fired.
“I love my job,” she said, according to the Daily Beast.
KTLA did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The Daily News published excerpts from Friel’s new memoir “Tonight at 10: Kicking Booze and Breaking News” detailing a provocative conversation she had with Trump while she was working for Fox News. Friel said Trump called her and told her she was “the hottest one at Fox News,” then, “out of nowhere,” suggested she come to his office so they could “kiss.”
She added, according to the Daily News, that she hung up after reminding him they were both married. At the time, the real estate mogul and reality TV star was married to his current wife, Melania Trump. (A reporter for People magazine has also claimed Trump came onto her while he was married to the now-first lady, a charge he has denied.)
According to the Daily News, Friel writes in her memoir, “This proposition made it difficult for me to report with a straight face on Trump running for president. It infuriated me that he would call all the women who shared stories of his bold advances liars. I totally believe them.”