2 Women Who Settled With O’Reilly Sue Fox For Defamation

Bill O'Reilly

Two women who reached sexual harassment settlements with Bill O’Reilly joined a defamation lawsuit against O’Reilly and Fox News on Wednesday, asserting that statements that he and the network made depicted them as liars, political operatives and extortionists.

According to The NYTimes, the women are Andrea Mackris, a former producer on O’Reilly’s show on Fox News who sued him for sexual harassment in 2004, and Rebecca Gomez Diamond, a former host on Fox Business Network who reached a settlement with Mr. O’Reilly in 2011 after coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against him. Both women had recorded conversations with O’Reilly, and he paid both settlements, according to people briefed on the matter.

They joined a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, a former Fox News employee who reached a settlement with Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly in July 2002 after she repeatedly complained about his behavior to the network’s human resources department and other executives. Ms. Bernstein is also suing for breach of contract. Her allegations did not include sexual harassment.

The New York Times reported on the settlements in April as part of an investigation that exposed how the network had stood by Mr. O’Reilly as he faced a series of harassment allegations. There now are six publicly known harassment settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly that total about $45 million. All the women involved in the settlements are bound by nondisclosure agreements. Ms. Mackris, Ms. Diamond and Ms. Bernstein said in the lawsuit that they were not the source of the information about the settlements published by The Times.

In the lawsuit, the women said that Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, disparaged and defamed them during a recent interview with Sky News in London. During the interview, Mr. Murdoch characterized sexual harassment issues at Fox News as being isolated to Roger Ailes, the founding chairman of the network, and said “there are really bad cases and people should be moved aside. There are other things which probably amount to a bit of flirting.”