NEW YORK—Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has decided to part ways with star cable news host Bill O'Reilly following allegations of sexual harassment, the company said on Wednesday.
“After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O‘Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel,” the company said in a statement.
O‘Reilly said in an April 1 statement that he had been unfairly targeted because of his public prominence. Marc Kasowitz, O’Reilly’s lawyer, said in a statement on Tuesday that the television host “has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America.”
It is not known exactly how Fox News would handle O'Reilly’s exit or whether he would be allowed to say goodbye to viewers on the air, according to the New York magazine report.
Representatives at Fox News and its parent, Twenty-First Century Fox, were not immediately available for comment about how O‘Reilly might be replaced. A representative for O’Reilly, who has been off the air on vacation since April 11, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Vatican photograph showed O'Reilly shaking hands with Pope Francis after a general audience on Wednesday, but it was not clear if the Pope knew who the television host was.
The New York Times reported on April 1 that Fox and O‘Reilly, a 20-year veteran of the conservative cable network, paid five women a total of $13 million to settle harassment claims. The five women who received settlements either worked for O’Reilly or appeared as guests on his program, according to the New York Times story.
O'Reilly said in the statement at the time that he had settled only to spare his children from the controversy.
