A Fox Sports hairdresser is accusing Skip Bayless and Joy Taylor in a lawsuit that includes the allegation that Bayless offered to pay $1.5 million for a sexual encounter.
A pair of national media personalities and a leading Fox Sports executive are being accused of sexual battery and sexual harassment, with Skip Bayless and Joy Taylor at the forefront of the suit.
Noushin Faraji, a Hollywood hairdresser who says she worked at Fox Sports from 2012 until last August, filed 42-page that names as defendants Fox, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, FOX Sports EVP Charlie Dixon, Bayless and Taylor.
Bayless is being accused in the lawsuit of propositioning co-worker Faraji with an offer of $1.5 million to have sex with him.
Taylor allegedly told her to “get over” the assorted troublesome issues.
As reported by Front Office Sports, Undisputed host Bayless had a habit of engaging with Faraji with “lingering hugs and kisses on the cheek while putting his body against hers and pressing against her breasts.”
FOS’ report notes that the suit notes that the single mother Faraji repeatedly told Bayless she was not interested in him and did not “date at work.” She also asserts that she told Bayless she was suffering from ovarian cancer, after developing issues with her left ovary, hoping to halt his advances.
Bayless, however, allegedly became more aggressive toward her over time, at one point offering the $1.5 million to have sex with him while offering to “change” her life.
From the suit: “Mr. Bayless made another advance at Ms. Faraji. Ms. Faraji responded: “Skip, stop, you have a wife.” Mr. Bayless responded: “Aren’t you Muslim? Doesn’t your dad have three to four wives?”
“Ms. Faraji responded that her father was dead, and when Mr. Bayless looked taken aback, she made an excuse to leave.”
Faraji also claims that Bayless made comments to her suggesting wrongly that she’d slept with another TV personality, Bayless’ Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe.
Fox Sports released the following statement to FOS: “We take these allegations seriously and have no further comment at this time given this pending litigation.”
During her time at Fox, Faraji’s suit says she registered multiple complaints to the FOX HR department.
“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,” FOS writes of the suit’s assertions. “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.”
