“The View” has postponed an interview with a guest who accuses former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment after he filed a restraining order to stop her appearance, citing a previous non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andrea Mackris, a former producer for “The O’Reilly Factor,” was scheduled to appear on “The View” on Wednesday before O’Reilly heard of her interview and receive a temporary restraining order, seeking to enforce the confidentiality provision that was included in a 2004 settlement.
Mackris gave an interview last week to The Daily Beast in which she detailed her allegations against O’Reilly, saying he repeatedly hit on her during dinners with graphic sexual talk often included. O’Reilly allegedly asked Mackris for sexual favors and mocked her when she refused.
After one phone call in which he allegedly asked her to masturbate with him, she sued O’Reilly in 2004.
“I stood up to Bill O’Reilly’s sexual abuse in the workplace alone. And for that I lost everything I ever was and ever hoped to be,” Mackris told The Daily Beast, adding she felt pressure from her own attorneys to accept a $9 million settlement that included an NDA.
In his request for a restraining order, O’Reilly’s attorneys argue that Mackris’s “statements thus far have already resulted in significant harm that cannot be undone. Further, she has evinced a clear intent to further that harm to the greatest degree possible, and to do so imminently.”
A New York judge has reportedly given Mackris until Monday to show why she should not be subject to a restraining order on the subject.
The Reporter notes that gag orders to stop speech are fairly rare and are constitutionally frowned upon.
“We were notified late yesterday about a temporary restraining order issued by a court against Andrea Mackris,” a spokesperson for ABC News told Deadline. “We decided to postpone her interview pending further developments. We look forward to welcoming her to The View at a later date.”
Fox announced in 2017 that O’Reilly would not be returning to host his eponymous show, which he had hosted for more than 20 years, after reports surfaced of the multiple settlements that had been made in lawsuits involving women accusing him of sexual misconduct. Advertisers and O’Reilly’s management subsequently dropped him and his show following these reports.
After the report from The Daily Beast was published last week, Fox News distanced itself from O’Reilly as well as the company’s leadership at the time the incidents occurred.
“The claims outlined in this report took place under the leadership of Roger Ailes, who along with Bill O’Reilly and the management referred to here, have been long gone from the network,” a Fox News told The Hill.