Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly believes Roger Ailes would still be her boss today if former colleague Gretchen Carlson had not sued him for sexual harassment.
Appearing Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the first stop on the tour for her new book “Settle for More,” Kelly noted that Fox News contracts include arbitration clauses preventing on-air talent from filing lawsuits. Carlson, who believed that Ailes hurt her career at Fox because she rebuffed his sexual advances, went public with her complaint after her deal with Fox News expired. The suit, which has been settled, led to an internal investigation and the departure of Ailes in July.
“Gretchen filing publicly was a big deal and an important step in this whole process,” Kelly told “GMA” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos.
When asked if Ailes would still be running the top rated cable news channel if Carlson’s lawsuit had not been filed, the star anchor said, “I think so.”
Kelly became a key player in the investigation of Carlson’s charges when she revealed to Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman at Fox News parent 21st Century Fox, that Ailes harassed her early in her tenure at the network. Kelly was a correspondent at the Fox News Washington bureau in 2006 when, she alleges, Ailes attempted to initiate a sexual relationship with her.
“He tried to kiss me three times,” Kelly said. “So I rejected that, and when I rejected that he asked me when my contract was up. As soon as I left his office I called a lawyer, and I did bring the matter to a supervisor at Fox News. … And that person vouched for Roger’s character, assured me that he was a good man, he was likely just smitten and that I should try to avoid him, which is what I did.”
Kelly said she was too new at Fox News at the time to go public with allegations against Ailes.
“Realistically that would have been a suicide mission for me and my career because I had been there 12 months. I wasn’t the Megyn Kelly of today,” she said. “I had no power, and he was on the cover of industry magazines as the most powerful man in news.”
Kelly said her relationship with Ailes was excellent in the years that followed the 2006 incident — after she avoided him for six months — and there were no other instances in which he tried to harass her. But Carlson’s suit — and the possibility that Ailes’ behavior was widespread — led her to bring it to the attention of Murdoch and the investigating attorneys.
Through his attorney, Ailes has categorically denied all charges of sexual harassment by Kelly, and cited one of her interviews last spring in which she praised the executive and his role in building her career.
