Fox News Fires America’s Newsroom Anchor Ed Henry For “Willful Sexual Misconduct”

Jill Goldsmith
Updated ·3 min read

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Fox News said Wednesday it’s fired host Ed Henry of America’s Newsroom after an outside investigation of a complaint involving “willful sexual misconduct in the workplace years ago.”

Henry was suspended June 25 when the network received the complaint. Rotating news anchors will co-anchor the show from New York alongside Sandra Smith until a permanent replacement is found, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News Media President & Executive Editor Jay Wallace said in a memo to all employees.

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“We would like to bring a very serious matter to your attention in an effort toward full transparency given the many actions we have taken to improve the culture here over the last four years,” the memo said.

“On Thursday June 25, we received a complaint about Ed Henry from a former employee’s attorney involving willful sexual misconduct in the workplace years ago. We immediately retained an outside law firm (which has never represented Fox News in investigation or litigation) to independently investigate the claims. Ed was suspended the same day and removed from his on-air responsibility pending investigation. Based on investigating findings, Ed has been terminated.”

The married newsman made some news before, in 2016, when he took several months off following a tabloid report by In Touch magazine about an affair with a hostess in Las Vegas. “We recently became aware of Ed’s personal issues and he’s taking some time off to work things out,” Fox News said then.

Henry joined Fox News from CNN as chief White House correspondent in 2011. He was responsible for co-anchoring three hours of morning news coverage on the network, co-hosting the Fox News program opposite Smith since late 2019, replacing Bill Hemmer. He was previously FNC’s chief national correspondent and anchored Americas News HQ Weekend.

Fox News has been looking to put an era of sexual impropriety and harassment allegations behind it after a dark period that saw founder and CEO Roger Ailes resign in 2016 amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Top-rated host Bill O’Reilly was forced out the following year after reports of numerous sexual harassment settlements.

“As all of you know, in 2017 we overhauled our entire Human Resources operation and instituted extensive mandatory annual inclusion and Harassment Prevention training which has since educated our entire workforce. We encourage any employee who has a sexual harassment, discrimination or misconduct complaint of any form to report it immediately,” the memo said.

Attorney Douglas Wigdor, who represents six women who have brought allegations against incarcerated former mogul Harvey Weinstein, said he is representing the accuser in the Henry case.

“We have received a number of enquiries regarding the reporting of the termination of Ed Henry. I can confirm that we do represent the victim in this matter, but we are not presently at liberty to share any further information,” Wigdor said.

Last night, women in a separate civil class action suit against Weinstein announced a $19 million settlement.

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