10 damning allegations in Andrea Tantaros' lawsuit against Fox News and Roger Ailes

Beyond Ailes, Tantaros lobs cringe-worthy accusations at bigwigs such as Bill O'Reilly and former-Sen. Scott Brown

Published August 23, 2016 9:24PM (EDT)

Details of Andrea Tanteros' lawsuit against Fox News and its former chief Roger Ailes suit surfaced online on Tuesday.

Tantaros was fired from the network in April after she refused Ailes’ alleged sexual advances, according to the suit. Her suit comes on the heels of similar sexual harassment allegations made by former-anchor Gretchen Carlson against the network's ousted chairman.

Below are some of the most damning allegations within the 37-page document:

1. Ailes would apparently ask female employees to "turn around" so frequently that the request became known as "the twirl." And "on one of the occasions when Tantaros was asked to perform 'the twirl,' Ailes also asked her to 'come over here so I can give you a hug.'"

2. "Ailes told Tantaros that she 'looked good,' and that 'I bet you look good in a bikini.'"

3. Ailes "forced Tantaros to suffer through his demeaning comments about other Fox News employees," like the time he called Kimberly Guilfoyle a "Puerto Rican whore" or (twice) asked if Greg Gutfeld is gay.

4. "Fox News’s 'trunk show' requires its female employees, including Tantaros, to dress and undress in front of Fox News’s wardrobe personnel in the middle of a room without even the benefit of a curtain to act as a dressing room."

5. "As she was walking to a show taping, [Tantaros] saw Ailes, and said a friendly 'Hello.' Ailes’s sole response was 'We need to get you a tighter dress.'"

6. Former-Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown — as a guest on "Outnumbered" — "made a number of sexually inappropriate comments to Tantaros on set, including, and in a suggestive manner, that Tantaros 'would be fun to go to a nightclub with.' After the show was over, Brown snuck up behind Tantaros while she was purchasing lunch and put his hands on her lower waist. She immediately pulled back, telling Brown to 'stop.'"

7. "Both on and off air, [Fox News correspondent John] Roberts made highly inappropriate comments to Tantaros, including 'Have you frozen your eggs?'"

8. Bill O'Reilly, "whom Tantaros had considered to be a good friend and a person from whom she sought career guidance, started sexually harassing her by ... asking her to come to stay with him on Long Island where it would be 'very private,' and ... telling her on more than one occasion that he could 'see [her] as a wild girl,' and that he believed that she had a 'wild side.'"

9. "The day before the publication date of Tantaros’s book and 12 hours before she was slated to appear on Fox and Friends to launch the book and embark on a media tour," she received notice from Dianne Brandi — Fox New's in-house lawyer — that the network "was invoking the 'pay or play' provision found at Paragraph 8 of Tantaros’s employment agreement, which allowed Fox News to bar Tantaros from appearing on any Fox News programming so long as it continued to pay her."

10. And in an unprecedented overreach of the "pay or play" provision, the network also informed Tantaros that she was “barred from entering Fox News’s premises anywhere in the world.”


By Brendan Gauthier

Brendan Gauthier is a freelance writer.

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Andrea Tantaros Fox News Roger Ailes Sexual Harassment