Brendan McDermid/Reuters
According to Radar Online, excerpts added at the last minute to Megyn Kelly’s upcoming memoir detail alleged instances of sexual harassment on the part of deposed Fox News boss Roger Ailes. Kelly claims in the book that the harassment began in 2005, shortly after she was hired as a legal correspondent for the cable channel’s D.C. bureau. The Fox News star writes that an editor informed her that she had “captured the attention of Mr. Ailes” and that she would begin meeting with the then-CEO in his Manhattan office.
“Roger began pushing the limits,” she claims in excerpts obtained by Radar. “There was a pattern to his behavior. I would be called into Roger’s office, he would shut the door, and over the next hour or two, he would engage in a kind of cat-and-mouse game with me—veering between obviously inappropriate sexually charged comments (e.g. about the ‘very sexy bras’ I must have and how he’d like to see me in them) and legitimate professional advice.” Kelly also claims Ailes offered to promote her through the ranks “in exchange for sexual favors.” At one point, she writes, he “crossed a new line—trying to grab me repeatedly and kiss me on the lips.” Upon her rebuffing his advances, she recalls, “he asked me an ominous question: ‘When is your contract up?’ And then, for the third time, he tried to kiss me.”
Additionally, the report says, Kelly describes how Fox News PR commenced an “intense campaign” to get her and other network stars speak out in defense of Ailes following the initial lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carson. “I was approached several times, and several times I refused,” Kelly writes. “There was no way I was going to lie to protect him.”