In a 42-page lawsuit filed on Jan. 3, 2025, a former hairstylist for FOX Sports who worked for the company from 2012-2024 has alleged that former anchor Skip Bayless had touched her inappropriately and propositioned her for sex, per A.J. Perez and Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
Additionally, the lawsuit states that a network executive used “his position to sexually harass women.”
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In total, the lawsuit has made six class action complaints and eight individual complaints on behalf of the plaintiff, Noushin Faraji.
The list of defendants includes FOX, FOX Sports, FS1, FS2, FOX Sports EVP Charlie Dixon, Skip Bayless, FS1 host Joy Taylor, and 25 other people referred to as DOES 1-25.
“Ms. Faraji brings forth this action because for over a decade at Fox, she was forced to endure a misogynistic, racist, and ableist workplace where executives and talent were allowed to physically and verbally abuse workers with impunity,” the lawsuit alleges.
“When Ms. Faraji and others came forward to report the wrongdoing, instead of addressing their concerns, Fox retaliated against them while the perpetrators and those who protected them were inexplicably promoted.”
“This case thus represents yet another in a long line of cases chronicling the toxic culture at Fox, marked by bad faith promises and repeated failures to address a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy.”
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In regard to Bayless, the lawsuit alleges that he had begun giving Faraji “lingering hugs and kisses on the cheek while putting his body against hers and pressing against her breasts.”
After denying his advances multiple times, the suit states that Bayless would become more aggressive, going so far as to offer her $1.5 million and saying that he could “change her life.
Per the lawsuit: “Approximately one week later, Mr. Bayless made another advance at Ms. Faraji. Ms.Faraji responded: ‘Skip, stop, you have a wife.’ Mr. Bayless responded: ‘Aren’t you Muslim? Doesn’t your dad have three to four wives?’ Ms. Faraji responded that her father was dead, and when Mr. Bayless looked taken aback, she made an excuse to leave”
This lawsuit comes after Bayless left FOX Sports in Aug. 2024, where he spent eight years as the host of the sports talk show “Undisputed.”
FOX Sports released a statement to Front Office Sports: “We take these allegations seriously and have no further comment at this time given this pending litigation.”
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Newsweek Sports has reached out for comment to Ms. Faraji’s lawyers and about the lawsuit.
The post Skip Bayless, Fox Face Lawsuit Over Sexual Battery and 13 Other Counts appeared first on Newsweek.
