Who Are Jennifer Eckhart And Cathy Areu? New Details On Women Suing Fox News Anchors For Sexual Misconduct
They're accusing Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Ed Henry of sexual misconduct.
Youtube Two former Fox News employees went to Federal court yesterday to file a lawsuit against not only the networl as a whole, but against three of its most powerful hosts: Ed Henry, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity. In their suit, the women allege the hosts engaged in various forms of sexual misconduct — and, in Ed Henry's case, he went so far as to commit rape.
Those are pretty serious accusations.
We decided to take a closer look at who these women are, and what's really going on with this lawsuit.
Who are Jennifer Eckhart and Cathy Areu, women suing Fox News anchors for sexual assault?
Let's take a look.
Who is Cathy Areu? She's a former Fox News journalist.
Areu didn't have a regular anchor job on Fox News but she frequently appeared on the network as a "guest commentator." Specifically, she regularly appeared on The Sean Hannity Show but the last time she appeared on the show was on March 8, 2018. According to the lawsuit she filed, she stopped appearing on the show when she rebuffed Hannity's advances.
Areu claims Hannity propositioned her and tried to pay his staff members to take her out on a date.
"Ms. Areu was a relatively regular face on The Sean Hannity Show until March 8, 2018. On that day, Mr. Hannity, on set and in front of the entire studio crew — and completely unsolicited —threw $100 on the set desk. He then began calling out to the men in the room and demanding that someone take Ms. Areu out on a date for drinks at Del Friscos," she alleged in the lawsuit paperwork.
Areu also said Henry sent her wildly inappropriate text messages of a sexual nature.
Areu went on to describe, in graphic detail, the types of wildly inappropriate and sexually explicit text messages that Henry sent to her before asking her to come on his show as an "anchor interview." According to Areu, she took this to mean that Henry was telling her that he would help her get a full-time job at Fox News if she had sex with him.
Areu claimed Tucker Carlson also tried to proposition her, and stopped her career when she rebuffed him.
"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,” the court filing says.
Jennifer Eckhart is a former Fox News producer.
According to both her website and her IMDB page, Eckhart was a former Fox News producer. She joined Fox News in January 2013 and was frequently featured on several top-rated Fox News shows. She also was a producer for one of the network's most popular shows, "Countdown to the Closing Bell." In the past, she served as an entertainment anchor for a PBS affiliate and had a short gig at ESPN.
Eckhart claims Henry raped her.
Eckhart claims her non-consensual relationship with Henry began in 2014, when he messaged her on Twitter to tell her that she was beautiful. From there, she claimed he "groomed" her by sending a series of inappropriate text messages to her. After relenting to his advances one time, Eckhart claims Henry forced her to perform a series of "disturbing" sex acts on him. At one point, she claims he got so violent that he took nude photos of her without her consent, then raped her while she was handcuffed.
Henry denies the allegations.
"The Me Too movement has helped to bring to light a number of injustices in our society, and everyone that has suffered deserves to be heard. This is not one of those cases. The evidence in this case will demonstrate that Ms. Eckhart initiated and completely encouraged a consensual relationship. Ed Henry looks forward to presenting actual facts and evidence, which will contradict the fictional accounts contained in the complaint. That evidence includes graphic photos and other aggressively suggestive communications that Ms. Eckhart sent to Mr. Henry," Henry's lawyer, Catherine Foti, said in a statement.
This is a developing story, and we will keep you posted on any updates.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.