Skip Bayless has been accused of offering to pay a colleague to have sex with him (Image: Getty)
Former Fox Sports presenter Skip Bayless has been accused by a woman who worked as a hairstylist for the company of sexual harrassment and offering to pay her £1.2million ($1.5m) for sex.Noushin Faraji, who says she worked at Fox Sports for 12 years until August 2024, has made a series of allegations about the renowned NFL analyst in a 42-page lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles.Bayless co-anchored the Skip and Shannon: Undisputed show with Shannon Sharpe on Fox Sports 1 until August this year, when he left the network after eight years in the role.Bayless’ name appears along with Fox, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Sports executive Charlie Dixon and FS1 host Joy Taylor as defendants in the lawsuit.After filing the class-action case in Los Angeles on Friday, Ms Faraji alleges that Dixon – who worked as a head of content – grabbed her buttocks at a birthday party in West . When she informed Taylor of the encounter, the host allegedly told her to “get over it”.
Faraji, along with other non-exempt Fox employees in California, is seeking unspecified damages from Bayless, Fox Sports and its parent company, Fox Corporation and a jury trial.Bayless is accused of making repeated advances towards Faraji and giving her “lingering hugs and kisses on the cheek while putting his body against hers and pressing against her breasts” during his time working on the morning show. The single mother alleged that she repeatedly told Bayless she was not interested in him and didn’t date co-workers. In an attempt to put an end to his advances, she informed the 73-year-old that she had been battling ovarian cancer.But the suit claims that Bayless only became more interested and aggressive in pursuing her, allegedly offering her £1.2m ($1.5m) to have sex with him and claiming he could “change” her life. In one encounter mentioned in the suit, Faraji says she reminded Bayless that he was a married man, allegedly telling him: “Skip, stop, you have a wife.”
Fox and Fox Sports executives have also been named in the lawsuit (Image: Getty)
His alleged response was: “Aren’t you Muslim? Doesn’t your dad have three to four wives?” She claims to have informed the veteran broadcaster that her father was dead – at which point she made an “excuse to leave” the awkward conversation.Faraji alleges she submitted multiple complaints to Fox’s Human Resources and Employee Relations departments, only to be met with alleged resistance.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit accused the network of refusing to act against the “perpetrators and those who protected them were inexplicably promoted”.”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 suit 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.”Fox Sports issued a statement in response to the lawsuit which reads: “We take these allegations seriously and have no further comment at this time given this pending litigation.”
Bayless could not be reached for comment by the Associated Press directly while his talent company have yet to respond to contact.