On Thursday, she tweeted: “A year ago tdy I jumped off a cliff w/o knowing what was below. Payne’s suspension came on the one-year anniversary of Carlson’s lawsuit. On Monday, Jamie Horowitz, a top executive at Fox Sports, was fired amid harassment complaints. Los Angeles radio personality Wendy Walsh alleged that O’Reilly promised her a position on his highly rated show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” if she would have sex with him. The network’s star anchor, Bill O’Reilly, was pushed out in April after reports that he and Fox had paid out millions to settle harassment claims going back to 2004. Holder never reported the incident to legal authorities, but Cortes was fired. Tamara Holder, a former Fox News contributor, received a settlement from the company after alleging she was sexually assaulted by an executive, Francisco Cortes, who oversaw the network’s Spanish language operation. Since then, several other women have come forward with allegations against Ailes and other significant figures. Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed suit last year against the network’s former chief executive, Roger Ailes. The allegations are the latest to hit 21st Century Fox, which has been plagued by sexual harassment charges across several units over the last year. Payne, who is also a Wall Street financial analyst, recently signed a new contract with the business channel, which has seen significant ratings growth over the last two years.Īccording to the sources, the woman told her lawyer that from March 2015 to March 2016 she made several unsuccessful attempts to discuss her situation with Payne with former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who was head of programming at the time. Payne, 56, has worked at Fox Business Network since it launched in 2006. Instead, the woman is alleging, after she ended the affair her appearances were drastically reduced, the sources say. She has told her lawyer, who is preparing a legal complaint against Fox News and Payne, that she stayed in the relationship because she believed he would help her chances of landing a position at the network, according to the sources.
The woman was never an employee of Fox News, but appeared as a guest across numerous Fox News and Fox Business Network programs with the hope of becoming a paid contributor. Korval said Payne will respond to the woman’s allegations in court if a complaint is served. Neal Korval, an attorney representing Payne, said the anchor “categorically denies” having committed any acts of sexual harassment against the woman. The Los Angeles Times is not naming the woman because she alleges that she was coerced into a sexual relationship with Payne under threat of reprisals. The woman, who worked for CNN last year, had a representative tell the firm she believed she was eventually blackballed from the network after she ended the affair in 2015 and tried to report Payne to top executives at Fox News, according to two sources familiar with her complaint. That relationship is now being reviewed after the woman contacted Fox’s law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison last month to report her allegations of sexual misconduct. Payne admitted to the extramarital affair in a statement to the National Enquirer published Wednesday that included an apology to his wife, children and friends. Payne, who hosts “Making Money” on the network and appears on various other programs, has acknowledged what he described as a three-year “romantic relationship” with a married female political analyst who frequently appeared on Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel from 2013 to 2016.
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