A former Fox News anchor fired over alleged sexual misconduct is suing the network and one of its top executives for defamation

• Former Fox News anchor Ed Henry has filed a defamation lawsuit against the network.
• He claims that in a statement announcing his firing last year for sexual misconduct a top executive defamed him.
• Fox News says the accusations that led to Henry's firing were substantiated in an internal investigation.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Former Fox News anchor Ed Henry, who was fired in 2020 over sexual misconduct claims, filed a lawsuit against the network and one of its top executives accusing them of defaming him.

Henry was fired from his job as co-presenter of "America's Newsroom" last year. It came after the network found evidence of "willful sexual misconduct" involving a former colleague, Jennifer Eckhart, in an internal investigation.

In a federal lawsuit Eckhart has alleged that Henry raped her in 2017, and harassed two other women. Henry has denied the allegations.

In his lawsuit, Henry claims that Fox executive Suzanne Scott "publicly smeared" him in her statement which outlined the misconduct claims and announced his termination.

Henry says in the lawsuit that he provided Scott with evidence rebutting the sexual misconduct claims against him by Eckhart but she went ahead and released the statement anyway.

It goes on to claim that Scott had "repeatedly covered up sexual misconduct by senior Fox News management."

Henry alleged that Scott helped cover up an affair between network president Jay Wallace and a subordinate. He accused the network of double standards in how it handles sexual misconduct allegations. Henry provides no evidence to substantiate the allegation of the affair.

In a statement to CNN, a Fox News spokesperson said the network had "conducted a thorough independent investigation into Ed Henry."

"Based on the results of those findings, we promptly terminated Mr. Henry's employment for willful sexual misconduct and stand by the decision entirely," the spokesperson said.

They added that the company is "fully prepared to vigorously defend against these baseless allegations."

The spokesperson said that Wallace was also investigated but "was cleared of any wrongdoing," and described the claims against him as "false."