What were the main allegations in the Bill O'Reilly scandal and who accused him?

1. The core allegations — what accusers described

Accusers portrayed a pattern of behavior described as verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances, sexually explicit phone calls and efforts to coerce sexual encounters, with some women alleging attempts to kiss or physically accost them and others describing career retaliation after refusing advances ^{[1] [5] [6]}. The New York Times and other outlets reported accounts including allegations of phone calls in which it “sounded as if Mr. O’Reilly was masturbating,” unwanted kissing that caused a woman to stumble, and producers complaining of being berated in front of colleagues — descriptions that helped frame the accusations as a range of coercive workplace misconduct rather than a single incident ^{[1] [5]}.

2. Who spoke up — named accusers and claimants

Media reporting and legal filings identified multiple women who either worked for O’Reilly or appeared on his show as having made claims or received payments: Andrea Mackris (producer), Juliet Huddy (former anchor), Lis Wiehl (legal analyst), Rebecca Diamond and Laurie Dhue (Fox hosts), Rachel Witlieb Bernstein (producer), and Wendy Walsh (guest contributor) are among those publicly reported as alleging harassment or describing negative fallout after resisting advances ^{[6] [3] [5] [7] [2]}. Independent compilations and timelines published by outlets such as Axios and Variety list these names and others as part of the broader catalogue of complaints linked to O’Reilly and Fox News ^{[8] [1]}.

3. Payments, NDAs and corporate response

Investigations found that either O’Reilly or Fox News paid five women a combined roughly $13 million in settlements between 2002 and 2016 in exchange for not pursuing litigation or speaking publicly — settlements that often included nondisclosure agreements, a detail cited by accusers and lawyers as a reason some alleged victims felt silenced for years ^{[2] [1] [7]}. These disclosures triggered advertiser withdrawals and, after a wave of negative coverage, Fox News and 21st Century Fox said O’Reilly would not return to the network following a “thorough and careful review” ^{[9] [1]}.

4. Legal fights, allegations of coercion and subsequent reporting

Some accusers later pursued additional litigation and public accounts challenging how settlements and nondisclosure arrangements were arranged, with reporting and court filings alleging that plaintiffs were pressured to sign NDAs and, in some contested disclosures, that network responses sought to characterize complainants as extortionists or liars — claims those women have disputed in defamation suits and interviews ^{[10] [6] [11]}. Journalistic reconstructions and legal documents released over time painted a more detailed picture of tactics used to resolve disputes and of accusers’ claims that they were “bullied into” agreements ^{[10] [11]}.

5. Denials, dispute over credibility, and the limitations of public record

O’Reilly has consistently denied the merit of the allegations, calling some accounts “100% false” in public statements and disputing media narratives; Fox has at times framed settlements as efforts to avoid protracted litigation rather than admissions of guilt ^{[4] [3]}. Reporting relies heavily on settlements, sealed agreements and interviews; because many terms were confidential, journalists have had to piece together the scope of allegations from a combination of reporting, court filings and named sources, leaving some factual gaps that public records cannot fully resolve ^{[1] [10]}.

6. How this fit into wider Fox controversies and aftermath

The O’Reilly revelations came amid broader scandals at Fox News, including the departure of Roger Ailes over similar accusations, and contributed to advertiser pullouts, corporate reviews and a larger reckoning about workplace harassment at major media organizations; some accusers later sought independent investigations into how the company handled complaints ^{[4] [12] [7]}. Alternative perspectives — including those emphasizing legal settlements as risk-management rather than admissions, and O’Reilly’s denials — coexist with accusers’ accounts and released documents, leaving the public record characterized by both corroborated payments and contested personal narratives ^{[1] [3]}.