Megyn Kelly reveals SHE complained about Bill O’Reilly

Megyn Kelly went for the jugular on her eponymous hour of ‘Today’ on Monday, tearing down a Fox News executive and Bill O’Reilly as they fight back against a New York Times story that revealed the disgraced anchor paid former legal analyst Lis Wiehl $32 million to settle a sexual harassment suit.

‘Fox News was not exactly a friendly environment for harassment victims who wanted to report, in my experience,’ said Kelly, who spent over a decade at the network before making the move to NBC.

‘However, O’Reilly’s suggestion that no one complained about his behavior is false. ‘I know because I complained.’

That bombshell immediately blew a giant hole in the narrative that O’Reilly and Fox News have been ceaselessly defending since March, when a New York Times story revealed that five women had settled harassment suits against O’Reilly.

Both parties stated at that time, and in O’Reilly’s case again this weekend, that no woman had ever complained about the former anchor’s behavior to either human resources or the legal department.

It has now been revealed that O’Reilly paid out $47 million to settle four of these six settlements.

This did not stop Fox News from resigning O’Reilly to a four-year contract valued at $100 million earlier this year, and later paying him $25 million following his swift exit from the company in the wake of the first ‘Times’ story. 

Bombshell today: Megyn Kelly (above) revealed that she filed a complaint against Bill O’Reilly with the heads of Fox News last November when he criticized her on CBS This Morning

Bombs away: She pointed this out to prove O'Reilly was lying when he said that no female had ever complained to legal or HR about his behavior at Fox News

Bombs away: She pointed this out to prove O’Reilly was lying when he said that no female had ever complained to legal or HR about his behavior at Fox News

The incident Megyn refers to played out for all to see, unlike the incidents that happened between O’Reilly and the women he has settled with over the years.

‘It was November of 2016, the day my memoir was released. In it, I included a chapter on Ailes and the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News. Something the Murdochs knew I was doing and, to their credit, approved,’ said Kelly, who wrote of the sexual haeassment she endurced at the hands of the late-digraced CEO of the network.

‘O’Reilly happened to be on CBS News that morning. They asked him about my book and about Ailes, who by this time had been forced out in disgrace.’

He said that day that he had not had a chance to read the book because he was not given an early copy, while also stating: ‘Look, I’m trying to stay out of any of that stuff. I wish her well. She’s a very smart woman. It’s a tough book environment. We’ll see if people respond to it.’

He was then asked if Megyn might appear on his show to which he replied: ‘I don’t know. We’ll see if she’s going to be on the show or not. I want to be that candid. I’m not that interested in this.’

That is when anchor Norah O’Donnell, a longtime friend of O’Reilly’s, cut in and asked: ‘You’re not interested in sexual harassment?’

A clearly annoyed and angry O’Reilly replied to this by saying: ‘I’m not interested in basically litigating something that is finished that makes my network look bad. Okay?

‘I’m not interested in making my network look bad at all. That doesn’t interest me one bit. ‘

O’Donnell, who looked a bit stunned when O’Reilly responded, then cut in and asked: ‘Is that what she’s doing?’

O’Reilly answered the question by saying: ‘I don’t know. But I’m not going to even bother with it. I’ve got a country that’s in a transition, political transition. All right. I’ve got a kids book that I want millions of kids to look at. That’s what I’m interested in. Not making my network look bad.’

Smiling through the pain: That is the same statement Fox News pushed out earlier this year after it was revealed O'Reilly paid five settlements, three of which totaled $15million (a recipient of one settlement, Juliet Huddy, above) 

Smiling through the pain: That is the same statement Fox News pushed out earlier this year after it was revealed O’Reilly paid five settlements, three of which totaled $15million (a recipient of one settlement, Juliet Huddy, above) 

This very public victim-shaming did not sit well with Megyn, who played a big role in reshaping the culture at Fox News by encouraging other women to report harassment and assault they had endured in the wake of the Ailes scandal.

‘I did something that day I’d never done before. I wrote an email to the co-presidents of Fox News, Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy. An email I have never made public, but am sharing now because I think it speaks volumes about powerful men, and the roadblocks one can face in taking them on,’ said Kelly. 

‘I wrote, in part: “Perhaps he didn’t realize the kind of message his criticism sends to young women across this country about how men continue to view the issue of speaking out about sexual harassment. Perhaps he didn’t realize that his exact attitude of shaming women into shutting the hell up about harassment on grounds that ‘it will disgrace the company’ is in part how Fox News got into the decade-long Ailes mess to begin with. Perhaps it’s his own history of harassment of women which has, as you both know, resulted in payouts to more than one woman, including recently, that blinded him to the folly of saying anything other than ‘I am just so sorry for the women of this company who never should have had to go through that.'”

She went on to say that she was told by Shine that O’Reilly would be dealt with, explaining: ‘And by that I mean he was permitted with management’s advance notice and blessing to go on the air and attack the company’s harassment victims yet again.’

It was not just O’Reilly who earned Megyn’s scorn either, and the NBC host next took aim at the woman who controls almost every major Fox News narrative.

‘At Fox News, the media relations chief Irena Briganti is known for her vindictiveness. To this day, she pushes negative articles on certain Ailes accuser, like the one you’re looking at now,’ said Kelly, who welcomed Juliet Huddy on the program Monday. 

‘It gives me no pleasure to report such news about my former employer which has absolutely made some reforms since all of this went down. But this must stop. The abuse of women, the shaming of them, the threatening, the retaliation. The silencing of them after-the-fact. It has to stop.’

Later in the show, Huddy’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor made an astonishing claim about Briganti when kelly asked him about the way accusers and victims can be shamed after filing lawsuits against powerful men like O’Reilly.

‘Irena Briganti has been doing this for years. She’s still there. They have a big playbook, but that’s a central part of it,’ explained Wigdor.

‘She has outed victims who, like Scottie Hughes, who accused Charles Payne of rape. Outed her to a tabloid [‘National Enquirer’]. 

Hughes later sued Fox News and that lawsuit is still playing out in court. 

Irena Briganti

Bring ’em out: Megyn later took aim at media relations chief Irena Briganti (above), who she accused of putting negative stories in the press about those who make claims against Fox

Mic drop: 'She has outed victims who, like Scottie Hughes, who accused Charles Payne of rape. Outed her to a tabloid ['National Enquirer'],' said guest and Huddy's lawyer Douglas Wigdor (left)

Mic drop: ‘She has outed victims who, like Scottie Hughes, who accused Charles Payne of rape. Outed her to a tabloid [‘National Enquirer’],’ said guest and Huddy’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor (left)

Huddy, like the other women who received settlements from O’Reilly, had little to say and even less that she could say due to the NDA she had to sign with her agreement.

She said multiple times that she was on the everge of tears, and noted how terrified she was to be spekaing out in public.

Huddy appeared most emotional after Megyn’s forceful intro opening the show. 

‘It is shocking and it’s upsetting to many of us. I spent this weekend on the phone nonstop, talking to many women at Fox News and otherwise, who are deeply disturbed over the latest New York Times report,’ said Kelly at the top of the program. 

‘On Saturday, The Times revealed yet another settlement paid to dispose of a sexual harassment case against O’Reilly. Not a huge shock there, we already knew of five, thanks to a Times report in April.’

She continued: ‘But this latest one was for 32 million dollars, reportedly paid directly by O’Reilly to Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl. Right before Fox News renewed his contract. 32 million dollars. That is not a nuisance value settlement. That is a jaw-dropping figure. OJ Simpson was ordered to pay the Goldman and Brown families 33.5 million for the murders of Ron and Nicole.’

Megyn then asked the question many are now wondering, and will likely never know due to the legally binding terms of the settlement which Wiehl was forced to sign in order to get her four-year payout.

‘What on earth would justify that amount? What awfulness went on? Wiehl reportedly alleging she was subjected to non-consensual sex by O’Reilly, which he denies,’ said Megyn.

She later closed out the segment, which took up the first half of the show, by asking a few more questions.

‘A lot of lawyers question whether it is reasonable for the company to be saying it didn’t know that O’Reilly would have paid 32 million bucks,’ said Megyn.

‘And the next question is, if they didn’t know, why didn’t they know? Why didn’t they find out before re-signing him?’

BILL O’REILLY’S 2004 PHONE SEX MONOLGUE FROM FOX NEWS PRODUCER ANDREA MACKRIS’ COMPLAINT

‘Well if I took you down there I’d want to take a shower with you right away, that would be the first think [six] I’d do … yeah, we’d check into the room, and we would order up some room service and uh and you’d definitely get two wines into you as quickly as I could get into you I wouldn’t get ’em into you … maybe intravenously, get those glasses of wine into you…,’ began O’Reilly according to the complaint.   

‘You would basically be in the shower and then I would come in and I’d join you and you would gave your back to me and I would take the little loofa thing and kinda’ soap your back and rub it all over you, get you to relax, hot water … and um … You know, you’d feel the tension drain out of you and um you still would be with your back to me then I would kinda’ put my arms – it’s one of those mitts, those loofa mitts you know, so I got my hands in it … and I would put it around front, kinda’ rub your tummy a little bit with it, and then with my other hand I would start to massage your boobs, get your nipples really hard …  ‘cuz I like that and you have really spectacular boobs. 

‘So anyway I’d be rubbing your big boobs and getting your nipples really hard, kinda’ kissing your neck from behind … and then I would take the other hand with the falafel thing and I’d put it on your p***y, but you’d have to do it really light, just kind of a tease business. ..’

 

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