Blonde bombshell: former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson sues network boss Roger Ailes, claiming sex harassment
Ailes, the powerful founder of Fox, allegedly told his star anchor Carlson ‘you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago’
Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson sued network chief executive Roger Ailes on Wednesday, claiming she was fired after she refused his sexual advances and complained about harassment in the workplace.
Fox News representatives did not return requests for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in Superior Court in New Jersey’s Bergen County, where Ailes owns a home.
Carlson, the former host of a daytime show at Fox who had worked at the network for 11 years, was abruptly fired on June 23. Nine months earlier, during a meeting with Ailes she called to address her feelings that she had been discriminated against, she alleged he told her that “you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago.”
The 50-year-old Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989, alleged in her lawsuit that Ailes, who is 76, ogled her, repeatedly commented about her legs, urged her to wear clothes that enhanced her figure and told her she was sexy but “too much hard work.”
Carlson said she was fired as a host of the morning show Fox & Friends in 2013, and her pay reduced with the transfer to a daytime slot, because she had complained about sexual harassment.
She said that one of her Fox & Friends co-hosts, Steve Doocy, “had created a hostile work environment by regularly treating her in a sexist and condescending way.” She said that when Ailes heard of her complaints, he called her a “man hater” who needed to learn to “get along with the boys.”