Skip Bayless and Fox Sports activities are reunited, although not in a means both get together would have hoped for.
The previous Undisputed host and the community division run by Erik Shanks and Mark Silverman have been hit with a jury-seeking criticism 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 lawsuit filed January 3 in Los Angeles 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 have been allowed to bodily and verbally abuse staff with impunity,” reads the swimsuit that claims sexual battery, retaliation, hostile work setting and fraudulent enterprise practices.
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 an alternative of addressing their issues, Fox retaliated in opposition to them whereas the perpetrators and people who protected them have been inexplicitly promoted. This case thus represents yet one more in a protracted line of instances chronicling the poisonous tradition at Fox, marked by dangerous religion guarantees and repeated failures to handle a toxic and entrenched patriarchy.”
Detailing the July 2021 incidence wherein Bayless is alleged to have provided Faraji that $1.5 million to sleep with him, the swimsuit then damningly says: “Roughly one week later, Mr. Bayless made one other advance at Ms. Faraji. Ms. Faraji responded: ‘Skip, cease, you may have 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 seemed greatly surprised, she made an excuse to go away.”
Faraji claims that in 2024 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.”
Bayless can also be alleged to have accused Faraji of getting a sexual relationship with Bayless’ then co-host and “archrival” Shannon Sharpe, an allegation Faraji says was completely false. Sharpe on his and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson’s Nightcap podcast Sunday briefly addressed being talked about within the actions by saying, “That ain’t acquired nothing to do with me.”
Following a number of tense on-air exchanges between Bayless and Sharpe, the latter jumped 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 rankings after which the cancellation of Undisputed have been mentioned to be a significant problem – as Faraji notes in her swimsuit. Not lengthy after Bayless’ exit, Faraji herself was fired from FS1 “by eradicating her from the schedule solely, utilizing fabricated enterprise requirements as a pretext,” the lawsuit says.
“We take these allegations severely and haven’t any additional remark right now given this pending litigation,” a Fox spokesperson informed Deadline in the present day. Reps for Bayless didn’t reply to a request for remark from Deadline. In the event that they do, this put up can 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 swimsuit, in addition to Bayless and quite a lot of Fox Sports activities company entities, Fox higher take this allegations severely.
In her 42-page swimsuit by attorneys Rana Ayazi and Devin Abney, Faraji says Taylor did nothing to assist her and truly informed her to “recover from it” after Dixon allegedly groped the hair stylist at a 2017 party the on-air star was internet hosting. In reality, together with workplace intrigue (to place it politely) and an alleged affair between Taylor and Dixon and the ability performs over girls the VP gave the impression to be making at FS1, Converse co-host Taylor turned “romantically concerned” with FS1 colleague Emmanuel Acho in 2020, based on Faraji – a relationship she discovered FS1 superiors asking her about again and again.
All of which, together with Faraji calling out Fox for ”Labor Code violations” and “unfair, illegal, and fraudulent enterprise practices” in terms of pay, finds the plaintiff looking for class motion certification, quite a lot of unspecified damages, and Taylor and Dixon to be 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 wonderful hairdresser and constantly being requested by expertise, she was shrunken all the way down to how a lot she might appease Mr. Bayless, and as soon as Mr. Bayless was gone, so was her job.
After the swimsuit turned public, quite a lot of associates of Bayless and others chimed in, amongst those that Bayless’ former First Take companion Stephen A. Smith.
“The Skip Bayless I do know has a tough time freely giving $15, he’s one of many least expensive 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 information 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 scenario, being accused of those allegations. However I can’t be over the airways being irresponsible and attaching reality or harmless, you understand, 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 individual that 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 might let you know about Skip Bayless.”
Jay-Z has been accused of raping a 13-year-old woman at a MTV VMAs get together in 2000 with the a lot accused and at the moment incarcerated Sean “Diddy” Combs and a but unnamed feminine “Movie star B.” The rap famous person, actual title Shawn Carter, has vehemently denied the claims and has his lawyer Alex Spiro making an attempt a swath of techniques to get the costs dismissed.
Dangerous Boy Information founder Combs was arrested September 16 on prices of intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to interact in prostitution. Already behind bars at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Middle and denied bail, Combs’ trial is ready to start out Could 5 subsequent yr.
