A Fourth Woman Files a Defamation Suit Against Bill O’Reilly

A fourth woman who reached a settlement after making harassment allegations against Bill O’Reilly has filed a defamation lawsuit against him, asserting that statements he made have depicted her as a liar, tarnished her reputation and damaged her career prospects.

The suit was filed Thursday by Laurie Dhue, a Fox News anchor from 2000 to 2008 who went on to work as an advocate for recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. A New York Times investigation in April revealed that Dhue had reached a settlement with 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, for more than $1 million after she made sexual harassment allegations against O’Reilly, the former prime-time host on Fox News, and Roger E. Ailes, the network’s founding chairman.

Her deal is one of six publicly known harassment settlements involving O’Reilly, which total about $45 million.

After those agreements and the allegations against him were disclosed, O’Reilly disputed the merits of the claims, saying that he “never mistreated anyone,” that he was the victim of a “political and financial hit job” and that his fame had made him a target. He said he had settled the claims to spare his children the pain of a public trial.

In the lawsuit, lawyers for Dhue said: “As part of his desperate campaign to clear his name, O’Reilly published false statements about Dhue — as well as the other women — calling her a liar, swearing that her allegations were fabricated in an effort to obtain a settlement, falsely asserting that her purported claims against O’Reilly were politically motivated and lying by saying that he only paid settlements to avoid having his family go through litigation, not because he had engaged in the claimed sexual misconduct.”

The lawsuit states that O’Reilly’s comments were directed to harm Dhue’s reputation for truthfulness and trustworthiness, which she relies on in her career in news and addiction recovery advocacy. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.

In a statement, Fredric S. Newman, a lawyer for O’Reilly, said Dhue’s lawsuit “has absolutely no merit.”

“Mr. O’Reilly has never mentioned Dhue, and any attention she has received has been the result of her own actions,” Newman said. “Mr. O’Reilly will defend himself in court fully and aggressively against all unfounded, opportunistic claims, and he will seek all appropriate legal remedies as well.”

Dhue’s lawsuit is similar to the one filed against O’Reilly in December by three other women who reached harassment settlements involving him. On Tuesday, O’Reilly filed a motion to dismiss that defamation lawsuit, stating that the claims were “frivolous and wholly unsupported in law or fact” and that none of his statements would expose the women to “public shame or ridicule.”