Skip Bayless and Fox Sports activities are reunited, although not in a method both social gathering would have hoped for.
The previous Undisputed host and the Erik Shanks and Mark Silverman run outlet have been hit with a jury searching for grievance claiming Bayless propositioned a hairstylist at Fox Sports activities with $1.5 million if she would have intercourse with him.
Characterizing Fox Sports activities as den of iniquity, the 14-claim January 3 submitting in LA Superior Courtroom additionally alleges that Bayless repeatedly tried to “strain” plaintiff Noushin Faraji “into having intercourse with him.”
“Ms. Faraji brings forth this motion as a result of for over a decade at Fox, she was pressured to endure a misogynistic, racist, and ableist office the place executives and expertise had been allowed to bodily and verbally abuse employees with impunity,” the sexual battery, retaliation, hostile work atmosphere and fraudulent enterprise practices claiming go well with says.
Learn the sexual battery and 13 different claims in opposition to Skip Bayless, Fox Sports activities, Pleasure Taylor and others right here
In tones and phrases acquainted to those that have learn previous lawsuits involving sexual harassment and extra that Fox entities and executives have been slapped with over the previous decade, the potential class motion provides: “When Ms. Faraji and others got here ahead to report the wrongdoing, as a substitute of addressing their considerations, Fox retaliated in opposition to them whereas the perpetrators and those that protected them had been inexplicitly promoted. This case thus represents one more in a protracted line of circumstances chronicling the poisonous tradition at Fox, marked by unhealthy religion guarantees and repeated failures to handle a toxic and entrenched patriarchy.”
Detailing the July 2021 prevalence the place Bayless is alleged to have supplied Faraji that $1.5 million to sleep with him, the go well with then damningly says: “Roughly one week later, Mr. Bayless made one other advance at Ms. Faraji. Ms. Faraji responded: ‘Skip, cease, you have got a spouse.’ Mr. Bayless responded: ‘Aren’t you Muslim? Doesn’t your dad have three to 4 wives?’ Ms. Faraji responded that her father was useless, and when Mr. Bayless regarded shocked, she made an excuse to go away.” In 2024, Faraji claims Bayless mentioned to her whereas she was giving him a haircut that “he fantasizes about having intercourse along with her and requested how a lot cash it will take for her to have intercourse with him. Bayless supposedly went on to say: “The extra you say no the extra I need you.”
With all that Bayless can also be alleged to have accusing Faraji of getting a sexual relationship together with his then co-host and “archrival” Shannon Sharpe. An allegation that Faraji says was completely false. Sharpe on Sunday on he and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson’s Nightcap podcast briefly addressed being talked about within the actions by saying : “That ain’t bought nothing to do with me.”
Following a number of tense on-air exchanges between Bayless and Sharpe, the latter jumped over to ESPN in June 2023. In August 2024, ex-ESPN host Bayless was pink slipped by FS1 after eight-years. Either side painted that departure in rosy phrases, however declining scores after which the cancellation of Undisputed had been mentioned to be a significant problem – as Faraji notes in her go well with. Not lengthy after Bayless’ exit, Faraji herself was fired from FS1 “by eradicating her from the schedule fully, utilizing fabricated enterprise requirements as a pretext.”
“We take these allegations significantly and haven’t any additional remark presently given this pending litigation,” a Fox spokesperson instructed Deadline right this moment. Reps for Bayless didn’t reply to request for remark from Deadline on the allegations. In the event that they do, this submit might be up to date.
Reality is, with present Fox Sports activities host Pleasure Taylor and FS1 Content material VP Charlie Dixon named as defendants within the go well with, in addition to Bayless and quite a lot of Fox Sports activities company entities, Fox higher take this allegations significantly.
In her 42-page go well with by attorneys Rana Ayazi and Devin Abney, Faraji says that Taylor did nothing to assist her and truly instructed her to “recover from it” after VP Dixon groped the hair stylist at a 2017 party the on-air star was having. In actual fact, together with inside workplace intrigue (to place it politely) and escalating alleged affair between Taylor and Dixon and the facility performs over girls the VP appeared to be making at FS1,, Converse co-host Taylor grew to become “romantically concerned” with FS1 colleague Emmanuel Acho in 2020, in response to Faraji – a relationship that she discovered FS1 superiors asking her about time and again.
All of which, together with Faraji calling out Fox for ”Labor Code violations” and “unfair, illegal, and fraudulent enterprise practices” with regards to pay, finds the plaintiff searching for class motion certification, quite a lot of unspecified damages and Taylor and Dixon fired.
Because the submitting says:
At this level, Ms. Faraji seeks justice. She is aware of that Mr. Dixon used his place of energy to coerce girls into having intercourse with him and used it as justification to grope Ms. Faraji. She is aware of that Mr. Dixon didn’t instantly hearth her (after Ms. Taylor and Ms. Faraji had a falling out) solely to appease Mr. Bayless by offering him with a plaything. Regardless of Ms. Faraji being a superb hairdresser and constantly being requested by expertise, she was shrunken right down to how a lot she may appease Mr. Bayless, and as soon as Mr. Bayless was gone, so was her job.
After the go well with grew to become public, quite a lot of associates of Bayless and others chimed in.
Amongst those that addressed Faraji’s authorized motion was Bayless’ ex-First Take associate Stephen A. Smith.
“The Skip Bayless I do know has a tough time gifting away $15, he’s one of many most cost-effective folks I do know,” the discerning NBA sports activities commentator and cultural icon famous on his podcast Monday. “That’s simply me. However that doesn’t imply that I’ve any inside data about any of this, I don’t, I don’t, and I’m not going to get entangled.”
Smith went on to say: “I do know Skip, and I’m very, very heartbroken that he finds himself on this state of affairs, being accused of those allegations. However I can’t be over the airways being irresponsible and attaching fact or harmless, you realize, or guilt to something that I do know nothing about. All I can say, and I don’t suppose it’s against the law to say, is rather like I mentioned with Jay-Z. The person who I’ve recognized for 25 years. I’ve by no means seen something like that from that individual, something near that from that individual. That’s the identical factor that I’d let you know about Skip Bayless.”
Jay-Z has been accused of raping a 13-year-old lady at a MTV VMAs social gathering in 2000 with the a lot accused and at the moment incarcerated Sean “Diddy” Combs and a but unnamed feminine “Celeb B.” The rap famous person, actual identify Shawn Carter, has vehemently denied the claims and has his lawyer Alex Spiro making an attempt a swath of ways to get the damning fees dismissed.
Dangerous Boy Data founder Combs was arrested on September 16 on intercourse trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to interact in prostitution fees. Already behind bars at Brooklyn’s harsh Metropolitan Detention Heart and repeatedly denied bail, Combs’ trial is about to start out Might 5 subsequent 12 months.
