On Monday, reports surfaced of a lawsuit targeting various luminaries at Fox News on sexual harassment accusations, including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. The lawsuit claims that Cathy Areu, one of the accusers, “was a guest on Carlson’s show in December 2018 and that after it was over, he told her he was staying in a hotel room in New York that night without his wife and children,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which added, “In the cases of Carlson and (Howard) Kurtz, Areu believed the men were making sexual advances, the lawsuit said.”
Fox News stated that they had asked an outside law firm to investigate, and based on their report, found Areu’s claims “false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.”
On Tuesday, this tweet surfaced from October 23, 2019, well after the reputed incident that Areu claimed occurred in December 2018:
The lawsuit starts by claiming, “It is widely documented in the public record that Fox News has not only cultivated and fostered sexual harassment and misconduct, but has consistently accepted and rewarded it. Nevertheless, Fox News would have the public believe that it is a different place from the Fox News that was run by former disgraced Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Unfortunately, it is actually worse.”
The lawsuit’s claim against Carlson reads:
In 2017 and 2018, Ms. Areu appeared on a very frequent basis on Tucker Carlson Tonight (17 times, at least, in 2018 alone). Ms. Areu’s final 2018 appearance on the show was in December 2018. That show was filmed live in New York City and Mr. Carlson was in New York City at the studio.
After Ms. Areu’s segment was completed, one of Mr. Carlson’s producers or writers whispered in Ms. Areu’s ear, while she was on set trying to get out of the chair, and told her that Mr. Carlson wanted her to stay until the very end of the show to chat with him. Ms. Areu had no choice but to comply with Mr. Carlson’s request due to the fact that she was on live television while tied to her chair with a microphone on her that was attached to the chair. Ms. Areu was also wearing an earpiece that the tech crew refused to take off.
Mr. Carlson’s tech crew refused to undo Ms. Areu’s equipment on set therefore she could not leave the chair or studio. Following the show, Mr. Carlson changed on set into his leather jacket for the annual Christmas party that he told Ms. Areu he would only be attending for approximately 10 minutes to, “make a quick appearance.”
Following the show, Mr. Carlson, hardly making any effort to hide his intentions, began telling Ms. Areu that he would be alone in New York City that night, and specifically said that he would be staying alone in his hotel room without any wife or kids. Without question, Mr. Carlson was probing to see whether Ms. Areu was interested in a sexual relationship. Ms. Areu awkwardly sidestepped Mr. Carlson’s advances and declined to spend the night at his hotel. Mr. Carlson promptly retaliated against Ms. Areu, who was featured on his show only three times in 2019 and has not appeared once in 2020.