Radio host Garrison Keillor fired over allegations of improper behaviour
MINNEAPOLIS— Garrison Keillor, the former host of A Prairie Home Companion, said Wednesday he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behaviour.
Keillor told The Associated Press of his firing in an email. In a followup statement, he said he was fired over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard.” He didn’t give details of the allegation.
Keillor later told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he was fired because he put his hand on a woman’s bare back as he tried to console her. He said in an email that he was trying to pat the woman’s back after she had told him “about her unhappiness.” Keillor wrote that the woman’s shirt was open and his hand went up about six inches, or about 15 centimetres.
Keillor says he apologized when the woman recoiled, and also emailed the woman an apology. He says she replied she’d forgiven him and “not to think about it.”
Keillor says he considered her a friend and they remained friendly “right up until her lawyer called.”
Minnesota Public Radio confirmed Keillor had been fired, saying it received a single allegation of “inappropriate behaviour” and doesn’t know of any other similar allegations.
The firing Wednesday came shortly after Keillor, an avowed Democrat, wrote a syndicated column that ridiculed the idea that Sen. Al Franken should resign over allegations of sexual harassment.