Roger Ailes trivia: 77 facts about famous television executive

Roger Ailes was an American television executive. He was part of a huge FOX News scandal concerning sexual harassment.

Let’s dive into some unknown trivia and facts about Roger Ailes.

1. His full name is Roger Eugene Ailes
2. He was born on May 15, 1940
3. He died on May 18, 2017
4. He was an American television executive and media consultant
5. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox Television Stations
6. He was fired from that position in July of 2016 for engaging in multiple sexual harassment cases with 23 known victims
7. Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani’s first mayoral campaign
8. In 2016, he became an adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, where he assisted with debate preparation
9. Ailes suffered from hemophilia
10. It is medical condition in which the body is impaired in its ability to produce blood clots
11. He died on May 18, 2017 at the age of 77 after suffering a subdural hematoma that was aggravated by his hemophilia
12. Ailes was born and grew up in the factory town of Warren, Ohio
13. He was the son of Donna Marie and Robert Eugene Ailes, a factory maintenance foreman
14. Ailes suffered from hemophilia and was often hospitalized as a youth
15. He attended the Warren city schools
16. He later was inducted into Warren G. Harding High School’s Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame
17. His father was abusive
18. His parents divorced in 1960
19. In 1962, Ailes graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio
20. There he majored in radio and television and served as the student station manager for WOUB for two years
21. Ailes was married three times
22. His first two marriages ended in divorce
23. He married his third wife Elizabeth Tilson on February 14, 1998
24. Formerly a television executive, she was the owner and publisher of local New York state newspapers The Putnam County News & Recorder and The Putnam County Courier
25. He had one son, named Zachary, with Elizabeth
26. The family resided in Garrison, New York, on a hilltop parcel in a home constructed of Adirondack river stone across the Hudson River from United States Military Academy at West Point
27. Ailes was a longtime friend of journalist and media personality Barbara Walters
28. Ailes also had residences in Cresskill, New Jersey and Palm Beach, Florida
29. In October 2007, Ailes gave a sizeable donation to Ohio University for a renovated student newsroom
30. Ailes majored in radio and television while at Ohio University and served two years as manager of the school’s radio station
31. Starting in 1994, he funded scholarships for Ohio University students in the school’s telecommunications programs
32. Ailes and his wife Elizabeth, through their charity, ACI Senior Development Corp., promised $500,000 toward the completion of a senior center in Cold Spring, Putnam County, New York
33. Local opposition to Ailes’s participation in the project arose after publication of the sexual harassment accusations against him and in response to a Journal News report about previously undisclosed conditions attached to the proposed gift
34. Under those conditions, ACI would act as general contractor for the project with no obligation to conduct competitive bidding before awarding construction management and other subcontracts
35. Further, ACI was excused from any obligation to pay prevailing wages to workers on the project, workers and subcontractors would have no recourse against ACI in case of payment disputes and ACI would deliver its work without warranty
36. After extensive public objection to Ailes’s participation at an August 2, 2016, public hearing, the Putnam County Legislature suspended adoption of the proposed charitable donation agreement with ACI
37. The next day Ailes withdrew the gift
38. In 2019, Russell Crowe portrayed Roger Ailes in Showtime’s Limited Series The Loudest Voice alongside Naomi Watts as Gretchen Carlson
39. Crowe won a Golden Globe for the performance
40. Also in 2019, John Lithgow won great critical acclaim playing Ailes in Jay Roach’s film Bombshell, also starring Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Carlson
41. In a book published in 2014, Gabriel Sherman[3] alleged that, in the 1980s, Ailes offered a television producer a raise if she would sleep with him
42. Fox News denied the allegation and rejected the authenticity of Sherman’s book
43. On July 6, 2016, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes
44. Carlson alleged that she had been fired for rebuffing Ailes’ advances
45. Ailes, through his attorney, Susan Estrich, denied the charges
46. Three days later, Gabriel Sherman reported accounts from six women (two publicly and four anonymously) who alleged sexual harassment by Ailes
47. In response, Ailes’ counsel released a statement: “It has become obvious that Ms. Carlson and her lawyer are desperately attempting to litigate this in the press because they have no legal case to argue. The latest allegations, all 30 to 50 years old, are false”
48. Ten days later, New York magazine reported that an internal review into Carlson’s claims had expanded into a broader review of Ailes’s stewardship
49. It also claimed Rupert Murdoch and his sons, Lachlan and James, had seen enough information in the preliminary review to conclude that Ailes had to go
50. They disagreed on the timing, however
51. James wanted Ailes out immediately, while Rupert and Lachlan wanted to wait until after the Republican National Convention
52. On July 19, New York reported that Megyn Kelly told investigators Ailes made “unwanted sexual advances toward her” at the start of her career
53. The magazine also reported that the Murdochs had given Ailes an ultimatum to resign by August 1 or be fired
54. On July 21, 2016, Ailes resigned from Fox News, receiving $40 million from Fox in an exit agreement
55. Rupert Murdoch succeeded him as chairman, and as interim CEO until the naming of a permanent replacement
56. In a letter to Murdoch, Ailes wrote: “I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business continue to lead our industry”
57. Ailes was thanked for his work, without mention of the allegations
58. He was to continue to advise Murdoch and 21st Century Fox through 2017 until his death
59. Following Ailes’s resignation, Andrea Tantaros claimed in August 2016 that she approached Fox News executives about Ailes’s behavior towards her in 2015
60. She stated that her allegations resulted first in her being demoted, and then in her being taken off the air in April 2016
61. Tantaros filed a lawsuit against Fox News in August 2016 for sexual harassment, also accusing Bill O’Reilly and Scott Brown
62. On August 8, 2016, Shelly Ross, writing for The Daily Beast, described her encounter of sexual harassment with Ailes in 1981
63. She claimed that at a lunch meeting Ailes asked her, “When did you first discover you were sexy?” When Ross explained to Ailes that she found the conversation “very embarrassing,” he responded that “the best expression of loyalty comes in the form of a sexual alliance”
64. The next month, 21st Century Fox announced it had settled a lawsuit with Carlson over her allegations of harassment against Ailes
65. Fox was also reported to have made separate settlements with at least two other women who made complaints about Ailes
66. In November 2016, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly wrote in her book about the details of her sexual abuse allegations against Ailes
67. According to Kelly, when she first joined Fox News, Ailes would have meetings with her, during which he would make sexual remarks
68. Kelly alleges that he also tried to kiss her several times during a closed-door meeting, but she was able to get away and leave the office
69. After that incident in 2006, Kelly says that Ailes did not sexually harass her again
70. Then, in 2016, when Gretchen Carlson first made her sexual abuse allegations, Fox pressured Kelly to defend Ailes, which she refused to do
71. In 2016, after he left Fox News, he became an adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, where he assisted with debate preparation
72. In a 2013 book excerpt from Roger Ailes: Off Camera, Ailes spoke about facing death, saying, “Because of my hemophilia, I’ve been prepared to face death all of my life. When it comes, I’ll be fine, calm. I’ll miss life, though. Especially my family”
73. On May 10, 2017, Ailes fell and hit his head at his Palm Beach, Florida home
74. He died on May 18, three days after his 77th birthday
75. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner attributed his death to a subdural hematoma, aggravated by hemophilia
76. His wife, Elizabeth, announced his death in a statement on the Drudge Report
77. Many media described it as “good riddance”