According to a lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, former long-running sports talk show host Skip Bayless has allegedly made numerous unintentional advances toward a hairdresser at Fox Sports, including offering her$ 1.5 million to have sex with him.
The 42-page lawsuit also alleges that” for over a decade at Fox, ( the hairstylist ) was forced to endure a misogynistic, racist, and ableist workplace where executives and talent were allowed to physically and verbally abuse workers with impunity”.
When she and others reported the wrongdoing, Fox retaliated against them while the perpetrators and those who protected them were inexplicably promoted, according to the counsel for Noushin Faraji, who is suing Bayless, Fox Sports, and its family organization, Fox Corp. So, this case is just one more in a long line of cases examining Fox’s harmful culture, which was marked by false promises and repeated failures to tackle a poisonous and ingrained patriarchy.
Bayless, 73, worked for Fox Sports from 2016 until 2024, when , his show” Uncontested” was canceled , after a fall in its scores coincided with the departure of his co-host, former NFL star Shannon Sharpe. Bayless came to Fox from ESPN, where he first appeared on” Cold Pizza” in 2004 and eventually hosted” First Take” alongside Stephen A. Smith.
Faraji worked at the Fox producers in L. A. from 2012 until she was fired in 2024 for what the lawsuit says were “fabricated” factors. The complaint names Fox Sports ‘ Executive Vice President Charlie Dixon and Fox number Joy Taylor as defendants in addition to Bayless.
The complaint claims that Dixon allegedly made an unintentional go to Faraji at a 2017 Hollywood birthday party for Taylor. According to the lawsuit, which includes a detailed account of an alleged continued relationship between Dixon and Taylor, she told Taylor about the show, but she responded by saying, “get over it.” She argued that” she just had her work because of Mr. Dixon and that Ms. Faraji just had her work because Ms. Taylor requested her.”
At one level, Bayless requested that Faraji provide him a cut in the cosmetic place once per week. ” Immediately after the regular haircuts started, Mr. Bayless began finding excuses to feel Ms. Faraji”, the lawsuit says. After each cut, he would give her lingering kisses while pressing his figure against her chests. Then he began to love her skin. Ms. Faraji may use excuses to leave right after the hairstyles because she felt uncomfortable by the natural touch.
According to the petition, Faraji explained to Bayless that she was having samples to check whether she had cancer in July 2021. ” Mr. Bayless then grabbed her hands, began kissing them, and offered her$ 1.5 million to have sex”, according to the lawsuit. ” About one week after, Mr. Bayless made another enhance at Ms. Faraji. Ms. Faraji responded: ‘ Skip, quit, you have a woman.'”
Bayless, who now hosts his own radio,” The Skip Bayless Show” on YouTube, married internet connections professional Ernestine Sclafani in 2016. Sclafani co-wrote a publication with Bayless, published in 2019:” Balloons: How to Keep Your Relationship Alive When You Live With a Sports-Obsessed Guy”.
Additionally, the lawsuit makes claims of class action on the part of” all nonexempt daily people who worked for Fox in California during the period beginning four decades prior to the filing of this Problem.” Payment for all hours worked, payment of extra, nonreimbursement of business expenses, and nonpayment of severance are all allegations.
Given the ongoing litigation, a Fox spokesperson said in response to the complaint,” We take these claims seriously and have no farther comment at this time.” On Monday, an email sent to the Bayless member failed to receive a response.
Taylor hosted Monday’s” Communicate” show on FS1, but she and her colleagues — Keyshawn Johnson, Paul Pierce and Michael Irvin — didn’t explain the lawsuit during the two-hour event.
Sharpe did listen, answering a lover topic during his and Chad” Ochocinco” Johnson’s” Nightcap” audio about” the rhinoceros in the room”.
” That ain’t got nothing to do with me”, Sharpe said. ” It doesn’t. What do y’all want me to suggest? That is unrelated to me. So, there’s nothing to solve. I don’t understand why everyone maintain — if you notice, everybody’s posting it, they got me.
” In those 42 websites, it doesn’t explain that Shannon Sharpe did everything. But y’all want to get clicks, but y’all mention me.”
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