Two women who previously reached settlements with Bill O’Reilly have joined another woman’s defamation suit against the former Fox News host, saying he and the network have portrayed them as liars as he’s spoken out to defend himself.
Rebecca Gomez Diamond, a former Fox Business Network host, and Andrea Mackis, a former producer on The O’Reilly Factor, have joined a suit filed earlier this month by former Fox News producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, who had also reached a settlement with O’Reilly. In the amended suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the women claim their settlements made with Fox News and O’Reilly include an agreement not to disparage the other.
They charge that comments made by O’Reilly and 21st Century Fox co-executive chairman Rupert Murdoch downplaying the allegations of harassment and misconduct at Fox News amount to defamatory remarks against them.
O’Reilly’s attorney, Fredric Newman, said the suit has no merit and O’Reilly has “no choice but to litigate fully and aggressively.”