Fox settles allegations against top host Bill O’Reilly

In the weeks after Roger Ailes was ousted as the chairman of Fox News in July amid a sexual harassment scandal, company executives secretly struck an agreement with a longtime on-air personality who had come forward with similar accusations about the network’s top host, Bill O’Reilly.

The employee, Juliet Huddy, had said that O’Reilly pursued a sexual relationship with her in 2011, at a time he exerted significant influence over her career. When she rebuffed his advances, he tried to derail her career, according to a draft of a letter from her lawyers to Fox News that was obtained by the New York Times.

The letter includes allegations that O’Reilly had called Huddy repeatedly and that it sometimes sounded like he was masturbating. He invited her to his house on Long Island, tried to kiss her, took her to dinner and the theater, and after asking her to return a key to his hotel room, appeared at the door in his boxer shorts, according to the letter.

In exchange for her silence and agreement not to sue, she was paid a sum in the high six figures, according to people briefed on the agreement. The agreement was between Huddy and 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News. The company and O’Reilly’s lawyer said her allegations were false.

In the aftermath of Ailes’ departure, executives declared that such behavior would never again be tolerated. O’Reilly has continued to host his show on weekday nights at 8 p.m., and he published two more books.

Details about the allegations and the agreement between Huddy and 21st Century Fox are based on interviews with current and former Fox News employees, the letter written by her lawyers to the company, and three pages of a draft of the settlement agreement.

The letter was mailed anonymously in December to reporters for the Times; its authenticity was verified by several people who have been briefed on it. A person close to Huddy told the Times that she relayed accounts of O’Reilly’s unwanted advances at the time they occurred.

In the letter, lawyers for Huddy also said that a longtime Fox executive, Jack Abernethy, had retaliated against her professionally after she made clear that she was not interested in a personal relationship.