Fox News has settled a lawsuit from former producer Abby Grossberg, who accused the network of tolerating a hostile work environment during her time as the chief booker for Tucker Carlson’s show, for $12 million.
By resolving Grossberg’s New York-based lawsuit — on the heels of settling a massive defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million in April — Fox avoids a legal battle that could have shed more light on its office culture. Grossberg’s account of a sexist environment echoed stories shared by several female employees in 2016 and 2017, when powerful network co-founder Roger Ailes and prime-time star Bill O’Reilly were forced out by allegations of sexual harassment.
Grossberg filed a separate suit against Fox in March in Delaware, accusing the network’s lawyers of coaching her ahead of her deposition in the Dominion case, which targeted bogus on-air claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Grossberg dropped that suit in May but would have had the option to refile it. Under the settlement, she agreed not to do so.
“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” a Fox News spokesperson said Friday afternoon. Justin Wells, who was Carlson’s top producer and was named in Grossberg’s lawsuit, said in a statement that he denies the claims made against him and the show he oversaw. “Nevertheless, we are glad that Fox has settled this matter and that all sides can move forward,” he added.
Grossberg’s discrimination suit made claims of an “overtly misogynistic” environment on Carlson’s production team, which she joined in September 2022, where “the staff’s distaste and disdain for women infiltrated almost every workday decision.”
She claimed that when she started working for Carlson, she found the office plastered with large images of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage.” She also alleged that male colleagues openly critiqued the looks and sex appeal of prominent female politicians as well as their female co-workers, and that an executive asked her “uncomfortable” questions about the sex life of Fox host Maria Bartiromo, who was her boss at the time.
Fox said that Grossberg’s claims were “riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees” and fired her, accusing her of revealing protected information about Fox’s legal process in her Dominion-focused lawsuit.
Grossberg’s lawyer, Parisis G. Filippatos, said Friday that he had been looking forward to litigating the case. “It has been the honor of my career to serve as Abby’s attorney over the past year — a more courageous and honest person, skilled and devoted journalist, and fierce advocate for justice I have never met,” he said in a statement.
Grossberg had emerged as a prominent critic of Fox after filing her suits, appearing on NBC News and MSNBC. She called Fox News “a big corporate machine that destroys people.” When Carlson was fired by Fox News on April 24, Grossberg said on Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC show that “there is a feeling of justice, but it’s only partial.”
Grossberg was subpoenaed by Dominion last year to discuss her work as a producer on televised segments in which Bartiromo and guests discussed far-fetched and unproven claims of election fraud. But in her deposition prep sessions, the producer claimed, Fox lawyers “were displeased with her being too candid” and took extra time “to make sure she got her story straight and in line with [Fox’s] position.”
Grossberg’s case against Fox, in the Southern District of New York, was at an early stage. Late last month, Fox requested — and was granted — a 45-day delay in responding to the lawsuit. A pretrial conference was scheduled for Aug. 3.
The amount of money awarded to Grossberg is on a scale with settlements won by more prominent Fox News employees who have resolved disputes with the network.
Fox News agreed to a roughly $15 million settlement with Melissa Francis, a former on-air personality who complained about gender-based pay disparities at the cable news network, The Washington Post reported last year. In 2016, the network paid $20 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carlson against Ailes, then the chairman of the network.
The network issued an apology to Carlson; no such apology was made as part of the Grossberg resolution.
On Friday afternoon, Gretchen Carlson said on Twitter that she was “proud” of Grossberg and commented that, “You don’t pay $12m without serious evidence.” Nancy Erika Smith, who represented Carlson, concurred that the settlement paid to Grossberg — whom she called “a brave whistleblower” — is “very significant.”
Lisa J. Banks, an employment discrimination lawyer and partner at Katz Banks Kumin LLP, called the dollar figure “an extremely large settlement for a single plaintiff harassment case.”
She said that Grossberg’s case was strong, backed up by a significant amount of evidence. It’s rare, she said, for plaintiffs to admit wrongdoing or offer an apology when resolving cases like this. But, she added, “if you’re paying a single plaintiff $12 million to settle sexual harassment claims, everybody understands what that means, that it’s in effect an admission of liability.”
Sarah Ellison contributed to this report.