The story behind longtime Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle’s unexpected announcement last week that she would be leaving her top-paying spot at the network to move to a pro-Donald Trump super PAC just took a surprising twist.
Most might know Guilfoyle as the busty, long-legged no-nonsense brunette co-host of The Five. Only days ago Guilfoyle said she was voluntarily leaving her role at the network to hit the campaign trail with Donald Trump Jr., who she has been dating since the spring.
However, a new bombshell report alleges based on dozens of interviews with multiple inside sources at Fox that she left while facing a hail of sexual misconduct allegations, which spurred a formal investigation by the network.
Among the multiple allegations are that the well-known anchor “showed colleagues personal photos of male genitalia” and engaged in “emotionally abusive behavior”.
The Huffington Post cites first-hand accounts from Fox insiders, who say “Guilfoyle was informed her time at Fox News was up following a human resources investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior including sexual misconduct, and that her lawyers had been involved since the spring.”
This reportedly includes an investigation into her showing lewd penis pics in her possession and identifying the men featured in the photos to distressed onlookers, according to the report:
Six sources said Guilfoyle’s behavior included showing personal photographs of male genitalia to colleagues (and identifying whose genitals they were), regularly discussing sexual matters at work and engaging in emotionally abusive behavior toward hair and makeup artists and support staff.
Guilfoyle announced Tuesday that she’s left the network, however HuffPost sources say she was warned she must resign by July, but delayed her exit while having personal allies appeal directly to head of parent company 21st Century Fox, Rupert Murdoch — appeals that were apparently unsuccessful.
It is also likely that as several journalists began to uncover the misconduct allegations, she’s made a quick exit in order to avoid embarrassment and a possible lengthy internal fight and investigation with the network.
HuffPost sources, said to include up to “21 sources inside and outside Fox News and 21st Century Fox,” remain unnamed because “they aren’t authorized to speak to the press, did not want to raise Guilfoyle’s ire or have signed nondisclosure agreements that prevent them from speaking to others about their experiences.”
No doubt when some of the specific stories do come out it’ll reveal some pretty interesting water cooler conversation and photo sharing going on at Fox.
Guilfoyle’s attorney John Singer issued the following statement in response questions by the HuffPost investigation:
“Any accusations of Kimberly engaging in inappropriate work-place conduct are unequivocally baseless and have been viciously made by disgruntled and self-interested employees. During her lengthy and decorated tenure with the company, Kimberly was beloved, well-respected, and supportive of anyone she ever met. It’s utterly preposterous that there are those who are nefariously and greedily twisting innocent conversations amongst close friends into much more than what it actually was for financial gain. Kimberly has happily moved onto the next chapter of her life and hopes others will do the same.”
Previously The Daily Beast reported that Fox News staff was allegedly engaged in a “hostile whisper campaign” against Guilfoyle, accusing her of misusing company resources including the use of network makeup artists to prep for personal outings; however Friday’s revelations are the most serious to date.
It appears that some of the allegations that were subject to internal investigation centered in part around Guilfoyle’s close colleague Eric Bolling, himself pressured out for sexual misconduct in September 2017.
The Huffington Post describes:
For many years, Guilfoyle was close to her Fox News colleague Eric Bolling, who was pushed out of the network after HuffPost reported that he sent unsolicited lewd photos to female colleagues.
They shared a young female assistant who, according to three sources, was deeply unhappy at work and was desperate to get out from under what she described to sources as Guilfoyle’s emotionally abusive behavior and attempts to involve her in her personal sexual matters by regularly sharing details about her sex life.”
[Guilfoyle’s assistant] was desperate to get away from Kimberly, she kept on trying to find a way to get a new job or get reassigned within the network,” a source who had spoken to the assistant told HuffPost.
The report noted that according to employees parent company 21st Century Fox encourages problematic employees or persons inviting scandal to retire or resign rather than be fired. Thus Guilfoyle was not formally terminated.
Fox News has of late faced multiple scandals involving allegations of sexism and harassment on the part of powerful executives and media personalities, for example the headline grabbing events surrounding the famously bellicose host Bill O’Reilly; however, accusations of dick pic sharing have rarely gone the other way in terms of gender, as in Guilfoyle case.
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