While promoting the release of her upcoming memoir on her Fox News show, Megyn Kelly has remained silent on her reported allegations in the book that she was sexually harassed and assaulted by network founder and former CEO Roger Ailes. This raises questions about whether the network will allow Kelly to discuss these allegations on their airwaves.
During the November 3 edition of her Fox News show, Kelly noted a last-minute revision she made to her forthcoming autobiography, Settle For More, about former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is currently under investigation for an alleged inappropriate relationship with an underage girl. She also highlighted the “many contentious exchanges” with Weiner throughout her time as a Fox News host.
But Kelly did not mention the news that broke earlier that day about the book: Kelly reportedly reveals “explosive new charges against the network’s founder, Roger Ailes." In her book, Kelly claims Ailes “tried to sexually assault her in his New York office and hinted she would be fired when she ‘pushed him away’” according to Radar Online, which received an advance copy. Kelly claims she “was approached several times, and several times I refused,” and Ailes’ harassment didn’t stop until she reported him to her supervisor:
Kelly claims in the book that he started to harass her, too, in the summer of 2005, a few months after she was hired as a legal correspondent in Fox’s Washington bureau.
She writes that she was informed by her managing editor that she’d “captured the attention of Mr. Ailes” and she was summoned to the first of a series of meetings in his Manhattan office.
“Roger began pushing the limits,” she alleges. “There was a pattern to his behavior. I would be called into Roger’s office, he would shut the door, and over the next hour or two, he would engage in a kind of cat-and-mouse game with me — veering between obviously inappropriate sexually charged comments (e.g. about the ‘very sexy bras’ I must have and how he’d like to see me in them) and legitimate professional advice.”
He offered to advance her career “in exchange for sexual favors,” she writes, and even though she says she rejected “every single one,” she claims he tried “physical advances.”
But in January 2006, she claims, he “crossed a new line — trying to grab me repeatedly and kiss me on the lips.” When she shoved him away, she alleges, “he asked me an ominous question: ‘When is your contract up?’ And then, for the third time, he tried to kiss me.”
The Wall Street Journal, Fox News' corporate cousin, confirmed Radar Online's report.
Roger Ailes, the former chairman and CEO of Fox News, resigned his position at Fox following allegations from multiple women of sexual harassment and assault by the executive. Former host Gretchen Carlson first accused Ailes of “sexual harassment/retaliation” in a lawsuit after being abruptly fired by the network. Dozens of women have since accused Ailes of similar harassment, including Kelly. While these claims have been widely reported by the media, Fox has remained mostly silent about the reports of harassment on their airwaves, which speaks to the culture of sexism and misogyny at the network.