Kimberly Guilfoyle left Fox News last week. Most who covered the story were under the impression that she was leaving the company to join a pro-President Trump super PAC with her boyfriend Donald Trump Jr.
While it appears that she has indeed joined the PAC, according to one report, she didn’t leave Fox News voluntarily. In fact, she had reportedly been told her time at the network was up before it was revealed that she was dating the president’s son.
HuffPo’s Yashar Ali writes, in a rather lengthy story published today, Guilfoyle was “informed her time at Fox News was up” following what was nearly a year-long Fox News HR investigation “into allegations of inappropriate behavior including sexual misconduct, and that her lawyers had been involved since the spring.”
The network released a statement on Friday, July 20: “Fox News has parted ways with Kimberly Guilfoyle.” The network is not commenting beyond the statement it issued last Friday.
HuffPo cites six different sources who said the behavior shown by the former co-host of The Five “included showing personal photographs of male genitalia to colleagues (and identifying whose genitals they were), regularly discussing sexual matters at work and engaging in emotionally abusive behavior toward hair and makeup artists and support staff.”
Reports of Guilfoyle expressing abusive behavior towards makeup artists is not new.
HuffPo writes that Fox News and 21CF tried to fire Guilfoyle two years ago, but cites her close relationship with the late Fox News chairman Roger Ailes as a significant reason why she was able to remain at the company for so long. “Many saw her as untouchable. She was, as one source described it, ‘the woman who knows too much.'”
Guilfoyle spoke with TVNewser in 2016 not long after the Gretchen Carlson lawsuit was filed against Ailes. Her initial reaction? “Total disbelief,” she told us. “I’ve known Roger Ailes for 15 years and I have been treated with the utmost professionalism and respect…He’s been a fantastic mentor in television for me.”
Guilfoyle was reportedly angry that her colleagues on The Five, Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Jesse Watters, and former Fox Newser Eric Bolling had been given their own shows, but she hadn’t received one of her own. She was also upset that Jeanine Pirro received her own weekend program (which is No. 1 in total viewers on the weekends). According to HuffPo, “Guilfoyle told colleagues that Pirro was too old (she is 67) and should no longer be on television, according to two sources who also said Pirro caught wind of Guilfoyle’s disparaging comments.”
HuffPo also broke the Eric Bolling story last September that he had texted, unsolicited, a photo of male private parts to at least two colleagues at FBN and one colleague at Fox News years ago. Following an internal investigation into the claim against him, Bolling departed the company. He and Guilfoyle are longtime friends, former co-hosts of The Five, co-hosted FNC’s New Year’s Eve special for years.
Ali says his Guilfoyle story is based on interviews conducted over the past year with a whopping 21 sources inside and outside of 21st Century Fox.
Guilfoyle, a Fox Newser since 2006, signed a contract extension with the network in June 2017, despite reports that she was being considered for jobs in the Trump administration.
She first made a name for herself while assistant district attorney in California. She was the co-prosecutor in a notorious 2001 dog mauling case in San Francisco. Guilfoyle began making TV news appearances, as a legal analyst for MSNBC and later ABC News, before joining Fox News 12 years ago.
Guilfoyle was also First Lady of San Francisco from 2003 through 2005 when she was married to current California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.