Former Fox News employee Laurie Luhn is speaking out about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of former CEO Roger Ailes as she files a new lawsuit against the network.
Luhn, 60, received more than $3million in a separation agreement from the network after claiming she had been sexually harassed and pressured into performing sexual acts with former CEO Roger Ailes.
She filed a new lawsuit against Fox News and former executive Bill Shine in January under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a law passed in November lifting the statute of limitations for survivors and allowing them to sue alleged abusers regardless of when it occurred for a year.
Speaking to the TODAY Show Friday, Luhn described what she experienced under Ailes, including a double meaning to the phrase ‘booking meeting’ which the CEO used as code for eventually assaulting her.
‘Code for booking meeting meant I was to go to New York, go to a booking meeting and then after the booking meeting, basically be sexually assaulted and keep my mouth shut.’
Former Fox News employee Laurie Luhn (pictured) is speaking out about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of former CEO Roger Ailes as she files a new lawsuit against the network
Ailes would allegedly use a video camera that filmed things as leverage against Luhn, which she says made her feel as if she’d ‘fallen into a trap.’
Luhn first worked for Ailes in the early 1990s, prior to his rise to power at the conservative-leaning media giant.
She claims she was unable to get a job at another network and the association with Ailes made it difficult. Luhn eventually left in 2011, accepting the settlement, she says, ‘under duress.’
Luhn claims that the ramifications of Ailes’ years of alleged abuse still live with her to this day.
‘My life was destroyed. He does haunt me in an awful, horrible way,’ she said, adding that she was ‘relieved’ when Ailes eventually resigned in 2016 but that it was ‘too late.’
Speaking to the TODAY Show Friday, Luhn described what she experienced under Ailes, including a double meaning to the phrase ‘booking meeting’ which the CEO used as code for eventually assaulting her
Ailes would allegedly use a video camera that filmed things as leverage against Luhn, which she says made her feel as if she’d ‘fallen into a trap’
She noted that she’s suing now because of the ‘blessing’ that is the new law allowing her to file suit.
‘As time has gone on, I haven’t recovered but I just happen to be blessed with this statute in New York,’ Luhn added.
A Fox spokeswoman said in a statement: ‘This matter was settled years ago, dismissed in subsequent litigation and is meritless.’
Luhn sat down for a TV interview back in 2016 with 20/20, in which she detailed how Ailes allegedly required her to be ready for afternoon hotel romps at a moment’s notice and once made her engage in a sexual act with another woman while he took photographs.
She claims it all began shortly after she met Ailes while working on George H.W. Bush’s first presidential campaign. She was 30 at the time and he was 50.
One night in 1991 he invited her to his hotel room to watch one of President Bush’s speeches, and afterward Luhn claims he had her strip to her lingerie and dance around the room while he recorded her on a camera.
‘He would have me get down on my knees and tell me, “You know what you are, Laurie. You’re my wh***. You’re my sex slave. You’re going to do whatever I tell you to do at any time. Do you understand that?”‘ said Luhn.
‘And he explained that it was like the military, that if he gave an order I was to follow through.’
New details: Luhn opened up about the 20 years of sexual harassment she allegedly endured at the hands of Ailes, telling her story in 2016 (Luhn and Ailes above sometime around 2005)
Demands: Luhn (above) claims that once she secured a big promotion at the network he told her to go to the hotel in an outfit to perform oral sex on him
Luhn gave her first big interview to Gabriel Sherman, whose book on Ailes is the basis for a Showtime series.
She told Sherman, writing for New York, that Ailes mostly demanded that she perform oral sex on him, and that he used the photographs and recordings he took of her to make sure she kept quiet about their relationship.
‘He always let me know he was in control, and it was scary,’ said Luhn.
‘It was like the minute it happened I knew that I’d been blackmailed… because he did take photographs of me. And he would say, “This is just my little insurance policy. And I’m just going to put it in a safe deposit box just to make sure you stay loyal to me.”‘
She then added: ‘He’d say, “I think you need some training. I think you’re slipping up.” Or, “You haven’t had your training lately,”‘ said Luhn.
Luhn also claims that ‘training’ was Ailes way of saying, ‘Show up in a hotel room wearing lingerie and be expected to perform oral sex.’
Despite the nature of the relationship, Luhn took a job at Fox News when Ailes was put in charge back in 1996 as CEO of the network.
Then in 1998, ten years into their ‘relationship,’ Ailes married his wife Elizabeth.
Luhn even managed to secure a big promotion and raise after a few years at the network, but she claims it came at a devastating, and demoralizing, cost.
‘I got a promotion. A big promotion. And afterwards I went in to see Roger, he said, “So, see, I told you I’d take care of you some day. Now, you go put your uniform on and show me some gratitude,'” said Luhn.
‘I was so excited. And then the next words were, “Go over to Double Tree and thank me.”
‘I kept on thinking it would end. You know, maybe he’d stop. And I actually didn’t think that it would go on at Fox, but it did continue.’
Shortly after she got her promotion is when she claims Ailes ‘ordered’ her to engage in a sex act with another woman.
‘Not only ordered to, expected to, and show up, and then say, “That was really great, wasn’t it?”‘ said Luhn.
‘And, you know, I’m trembling. And practically getting sick. And yes, I mean, it was horrible.’
With her new promotion came new demands by Ailes, according to Luhn, who claimed she had to engage in sadomasochistic sex with another woman while Ailes took photos and starting in 2006 engage in phone sex with Ailes from her office.
Russell Crowe as Ailes and Simon McBurney as Rupert Murdoch in the show
Moving forward: A few years after meeting Ailes while working on President George H.W. Bush’s campaign, Luhn took a job with him at Fox News
He stopped with the hotel sessions around this time, she claims, and gave her a new task.
‘You’re going to find me Roger’s Angels. You’re going to find me whores,’ Luhn claimed Ailes told her during her interview with New York.
Luhn said that it was her willingness to perform the sexual acts Ailes demanded of her that ultimately caused her to suffer a mental breakdown.
It was after that breakdown that Luhn, then an event planner for Fox News, decided to tell the network about what she alleges was 20 years of sexual harassment at the hands of Ailes.
The network quickly responded by giving Luhn a $3.15 million payout, and making her sign an ‘extensive nondisclosure provisions’ that Sherman saw while interviewing Luhn for New York.
Luhn made the decision to go public despite the terms of her settlement after Gretchen Carlson filed her lawsuit against Ailes, first reaching out to the lawyers conducting an internal investigation at the network and then granting her first interview.
Ailes stepped down as CEO of Fox News in July 2016 after Carlson filed her lawsuit against him.
In the wake of her sexual harassment claims multiple other women detailed similar incidents involving Ailes, including Fox News’ then-star host Megyn Kelly.
The start: The former Fox News employee claims it all began one night in a hotel when Ailes made her dance around in lingerie while filming her
Wedded bliss: Ailes married his wife Elizabeth in 1998 (couple above in 2015), ten years after he first met Luhn
Luhn detailed more about her years with Ailes while speaking to Sherman, starting with how they first met.
She said that she met Ailes in 1988 while working in the accounting department for the Bush campaign at their Washington DC headquarters.
She was 28 at the time and made a point of introducing herself to Ailes once day, saying she wanted to go into political communications like him, and days later he allegedly urged her to call him if she ever had any questions.
Luhn claims she made her first call to Ailes in 1990 when she was in danger of losing her job, and he told her to meet him at his DC office.
Ailes told Luhn he did not have a position for her, she claims, and then asked her a series of personal questions before inquiring if she could give him a ride to the airport.
They stopped for food first said Luhn, and she then took Ailes to catch his flight.
‘We pull up and I say, “Thank you so much for dinner.” He leans over and slips me the tongue and kisses me and hands me a wad of cash,’ said Luhn, who had told Ailes she was struggling financially at the time.
‘Here’s to help you pay some bills,’ he said. It was maybe $200 or $300.’
Roger Ailes is seen by many as the man who built Fox News
Ailes stepped down as CEO of Fox News in July 2016 after Gretchen Carlson filed her lawsuit against him
Luhn was given some work by Ailes soon after that. She says he paid her $500 a month and allegedly required her to file Freedom of Information acts on men including Paul Manafort, and Roger Stone, who are both currently working for the Donald Trump campaign.
Then, on January 16, 1991, Luhn alleges that Ailes had her meet him at his hotel suite wearing a garter and pair of stockings he had asked her to buy and dance for him, which he filmed with a video camera.
‘Laurie, if you’re gonna be my girl, my eyes and ears, if you are going to be someone I can depend on in Washington, my spy, come on, dance for me,’ Ailes said to Luhn according to her claims, before then asking her to kneel in front of him and placing his hands on her temples.
That is when Luhn claims Ailes began to speak in a trance-like voice, saying: ‘Tell me you will do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it. At any time, at any place when I call. No matter where I call you, no matter where you are. Do you understand? You will follow orders. If I tell you to put on your uniform, what are you gonna do, Laurie? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO, LAURIE?’
This was also the same night that he allegedly said to Luhn: ‘You’re my wh***. You’re my sex slave.’
Luhn claims she then performed oral sex on Ailes at his request, and that he later showed her the video he made of her dancing, telling her: ‘I am going to put it in a safe-deposit box just so we understand each other.’
Five years later the harassment became more frequent claims Luhn, who secured a job working on a public affairs program that was airing on a new cable network – Fox News.
Ailes helped get her in the door, and Luhn said she loved her job with the network.
The visits to hotels to meet Ailes for sex continued claims Luhn, but became a problem when her co-workers in the DC office began to question her frequent trips to New York City for work.
‘No one knew what the heck she did,’ said one former colleague. ‘She was a “protected person” and left alone.’
The trips eventually led to problems with her boss in DC, something Luhn claims Ailes dealt with by calling her to New York and telling her she was being promoted.
After Ailes gave her the news she was told to call her boss from the CEO’s extension, to make it clear that she was being protected by the network.
It had been 18 years since she first introduced herself to Ailes at this point and Luhn said she was suffering emotionally and then had a mental breakdown.
She was kept under Ailes’ watchful eye after that, she claims, and he monitored all her correspondence while also lashing out when he learned she was taking medication for her anxiety.
‘Don’t take pills, and don’t you ever tell that doctor about us!’ Luhan said Ailes told her, referring to the psychiatrist who prescribed the drugs.
‘His whole deal was they can never prove anything about you and me unless you say something. He said that to me for 20 years. Why do you think I got so messed up?’
Luhn left New York eventually and spent time in California and then her home state of Texas while remaining on the payroll at Fox News.
Then, sometime in late 2010 or early 2011 she wrote a letter to a Fox News lawyer detailing the 20 years of sexual harassment she experienced at the hands of Ailes.
She signed a $3.15 million settlement in June 2011 and agreed to never speak about what happened – until she learned of Carlson’s lawsuit.
The legal and financial risks are big, but Luhn said: ‘The truth shall set you free. Nothing else matters.’