Former Fox News contributor Laurie Luhn speaks 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, was awarded more than $3 million in a separation agreement from the network after she claimed she had been sexually harassed and pressured into sexual activity with former CEO Roger Ailes.
She filed a new lawsuit in January against Fox News and former executive Bill Shine under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a law passed in November that removes the statute of limitations for survivors and allows them to prosecute suspected offenders regardless of the time of the incident one year to sue.
Speak with the TODAY show On Friday, Luhn described what she experienced under Ailes, including a double meaning of the phrase “booking session,” which the CEO used as code for the eventual attack on her.
“The booking meeting code meant I was supposed to go to New York, go to a booking meeting, and then after the booking meeting, I was basically going to be sexually assaulted and shut up.”
Former Fox News employee Laurie Luhn (pictured) opens up about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of former CEO Roger Ailes as she files a new lawsuit against the network
Former Fox News contributor Laurie Luhn is breaking her silence after filing a lawsuit against the network alleging Roger Ailes sexually abused her for years and that the network covered it up. @stephgosk reports. pic.twitter.com/oa31wNPEMP
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 17, 2023
Ailes allegedly used a video camera filming things as a bargaining chip against Luhn, which made her feel like she had “walked into a trap”.
Luhn first worked for Ailes in the early 1990s before coming to power at the conservative-leaning media giant.
She claims she couldn’t get a job on another network and being associated with Ailes made it difficult. Luhn finally left in 2011 and accepted the settlement, she says, “under duress.”
Luhn claims the aftermath of Ailes’ years of alleged abuse lives with her to this day.
“My life has been destroyed. He’s haunting me in a horrible, horrible way,” she said, adding that she was “relieved” when Ailes finally resigned in 2016 but that it was “too late.”
Speaking to the TODAY Show on Friday, Luhn detailed what she experienced under Ailes, including a double meaning of the phrase “booking meeting,” which the CEO used as code to eventually attack her
Ailes allegedly used a video camera filming things as a bargaining chip against Luhn, which made her feel like she had “walked into a trap”.
She noted that she is now suing because of the “blessing” that the new law allows her to file a lawsuit.
“I haven’t recovered over time, but I 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 without merit.”
Luhn sat down with 20/20 for a television interview in 2016, in which she detailed how Ailes allegedly required her to be ready for afternoon hotel romps at all times and once got her to engage in a sexual act with another woman to let in while he took photographs.
She claims it all started shortly after she met Ailes while she was working on George HW 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, after which Luhn claims he stripped her down to her underwear and danced around the room while he taped her on camera.
“He wanted me to get on my knees and tell me, ‘You know what you are, Laurie. You are my w***. You are my sex slave. You will do what I tell you, you can do it anytime. Do you understand that?” said Luhn.
“And he explained that if he gives an order, it’s like the military, I should carry him out.”
New details: Luhn spoke about the 20 years of sexual harassment she allegedly suffered at the hands of Ailes and shared her story in 2016 (Luhn and Ailes above sometime around 2005).
Demands: Luhn (above) claims that when 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
Her first major interview was with Gabriel Sherman, whose book about Ailes is the basis for a Showtime series.
She told Sherman, who wrote for New York, that Ailes’ main requirement was that she perform oral sex on him and that he used the photos and recordings he took of her to ensure she was silent about their relationship.
“He always let me know he was in control and it was scary,” Luhn said.
“It was like I knew the moment it happened that I’d been blackmailed … for taking pictures of me. And he’d say, “That’s just my little insurance policy. And I’m just going to put it in a locker, just to make sure you stay loyal to me.”
She then added: “He would say, ‘I think you need some training. I think you’re slipping.” Or: “You haven’t had any training lately,” said Luhn.
Luhn also claims that “training” was Aile’s way of saying, “Show up in a hotel room in lingerie and you’ll be expected to perform oral sex.”
Despite the nature of the relationship, Luhn took a job at Fox News when Ailes took over as the network’s CEO in 1996.
Then, in 1998, ten years after their “relationship,” Ailes married his wife, Elizabeth.
Luhn even managed to secure a big promotion and raise after a few years on the network, but she claims it came at a devastating and demoralizing cost.
‘I’ve been promoted. A big action. And after that I went in to see Roger, he said, “Well, I told you I’d take care of you one day. Now put your uniform on and show me some gratitude,” Luhn said.
‘I was so excited. And then the next few words were, “Go over to Double Tree and thank me.”
“I always thought it would end. You know, maybe he would stop. And I didn’t really think Fox would move on, but it did.’
Shortly after being promoted, she claims Ailes “ordered her” to engage in a sex act with another woman.
“Not just ordered, expected and showing up and then going, ‘That was really great, wasn’t it?'” Luhn said.
“And you know, I’m shaking. And practically get sick. And yes, I mean it was awful.”
With her new promotion came new demands from Ailes, according to Luhn, who claimed she had to engage in sadomasochistic sex with another woman while Ailes took pictures and had phone sex with Ailes from her office from 2006 onwards.
Russell Crowe as Ailes and Simon McBurney as Rupert Murdoch on the show
Forward: A few years after meeting Ailes while working on President George HW Bush’s campaign, Luhn took a job with him at Fox News
He quit the hotel meetings around this time, she claims, and gave her a new job.
“You will find Roger’s Angels for me. You will 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 that Ailes asked of her that ultimately caused her to have a nervous breakdown.
After that meltdown, Luhn, then an event planner at Fox News, decided to tell the network what she thought 20 years of sexual harassment by Ailes was like.
The network quickly responded by granting Luhn a $3.15 million payout and forcing her to sign a “comprehensive non-disclosure agreement,” which 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 contacting the attorneys conducting an internal investigation into the network and then allowing her first interview.
Ailes resigned as Fox News CEO in July 2016 after Carlson filed her lawsuit against him.
After her sexual harassment, several other women claimed to describe similar incidents involving Ailes, including Megyn Kelly, then the Fox News star host.
The beginning: The former Fox News contributor claims it all started one night in a hotel when Ailes made her dance around in lingerie while he was filming her
Married bliss: Ailes married his wife Elizabeth in 1998 (couple above in 2015), ten years after he first met Luhn
Luhn opened up more about her years with Ailes while speaking with Sherman, beginning with how they first met.
She said she met Ailes in 1988 while she was working in the accounting department for the Bush campaign at her Washington DC headquarters.
She was 28 at the time and made a point of introducing herself to Ailes once a day, saying she wanted to get into political communications like him, and days later he reportedly urged her to call him if she ever had questions.
Luhn claims she first called 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 didn’t have a job for her, she claims, and then asked her a series of personal questions before asking him if she could drive him to the airport.
They stopped to eat first, Luhn said, and then she took Ailes to catch his flight.
“We stop and I say, ‘Thank you for dinner.’ He leans in and sticks his tongue out at me, kisses me and hands me a wad of bills,” said Luhn, who told Ailes she was struggling financially at the time.
“Here to help you pay some bills,” he said. It was maybe $200 or $300.”
Roger Ailes is considered by many to be the man who built Fox News
Ailes resigned as Fox News CEO in July 2016 after Gretchen Carlson filed her lawsuit against him
Luhn received some work from Ailes soon after. She says he paid her $500 a month and allegedly asked her to file freedom of information legislation against men like Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, both of whom currently work for Donald Trump’s campaign.
Then, on January 16, 1991, Luhn alleges that Ailes had her met in his hotel suite with a garter belt and a pair of stockings that he asked her to buy for him and dance, which he filmed on a video camera.
“Laurie, if you want to be my girl, my eyes and ears, if you want to be someone I can count on in Washington, my spy, come on, dance for me,” Ailes told Luhn, according to her claims before he then asks her to kneel in front of him and puts his hands on her temples.
At this point, Luhn claims that Ailes began speaking in a trance-like voice, saying, “Tell me you will do what I tell you when I tell you.” Anytime, anywhere, whenever I call. No matter where I call you, no matter where you are. Do you understand? They will obey orders. If I tell you to put your uniform on, what will you do, Laurie? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO, LAURIE?’
This was also the same night he reportedly told Luhn, “You’re my w***. You are my sex slave.’
Luhn claims she then performed oral sex on Ailes at his request and later showed her the video he took of her dancing and told her, “I’m going to put it in a locker just so we can understand each other.” ‘
Five years later, the harassment has become more frequent, claims Luhn, who landed a job on a public affairs show that aired on a new cable network – Fox News.
Ailes helped her get to the door and Luhn said she loves her job at the station.
Visits to hotels to meet Ailes for sex, Luhn continued to claim, but became an issue when her colleagues at the DC office began questioning her frequent trips to New York City for work.
“Nobody knew what the hell she did,” said a former colleague. “She was a ‘protected person’ and was left alone.”
The trips eventually led to problems with her boss in DC, something Luhn says was resolved by Ailes calling her to New York and telling her she was getting a promotion.
After Ailes broke the news to her, she was told to call her boss from the CEO’s extension to clarify that she was protected by the network.
It had been 18 years since she first introduced herself to Ailes at that point, and Luhn said she suffered emotionally and then suffered a nervous breakdown.
She was kept under Ailes’ watchful eye afterwards, she claims, and he monitored all of her correspondence, including lashing out when he learned she was taking medication for her anxiety.
‘Don’t take any pills and never tell the doctor about us!’ Luhan said Ailes told her, referring to the psychiatrist who prescribed the drugs.
“His whole deal was that if you don’t tell, they can never prove anything to you and me. He’s been telling me that for 20 years. Why do you think I got so confused?’
Luhn eventually left New York and spent time in California and then her native state of Texas while remaining on the Fox News payroll.
Then, sometime in late 2010 or early 2011, she wrote a letter to a Fox News attorney describing the 20 years of sexual harassment by Ailes.
She signed a $3.15 million settlement in June 2011 and agreed never to speak about what happened — until she found out about Carlson’s lawsuit.
The legal and financial risks are great, but Luhn said: “The truth will set you free. Nothing else matters.’