Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson has filed suit charging that she was fired after being sexually harassed by Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.
Carlson is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
The suit, filed in Superior Court of New Jersey, charges that Ailes fired the 50-year-old Carlson because she refused to sleep with him and reported disparaging treatment in the newsroom.
Update:Fox Launches Internal Review of Ailes Allegations
She was let go the day her contract expired — June 23 — despite her show, The Real Story With Gretchen Carlson, being the leading cable news program in its afternoon time slot, the suit says.
"We believe that the evidence will confirm that Gretchen was fired from Fox & Friends for speaking up about demeaning and discriminatory behavior on and off the set," said Nancy Erika Smith of Smith Mullin, who is representing Carlson.
The complaint describes an exchange with Ailes during a meeting last September in which Carlson said she tried to discuss ongoing discriminatory treatment.
"I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you'd be good and better and I'd be good and better," Ailes allegedly told Carlson at the time, according to the complaint, which said he added that "sometimes problems are easier to solve" that way.
Read more at broadcastingcable.com.
