The woman who forever linked the words “falafel” and “loofah” to O’Reilly, Andrea Mackris, has recently broken the terms of her non-disclosure agreement in order to speak her truth. After nearly two decades of silence, Mackris gave an extensive interview to The Daily Beast: “There is one way I can retrieve my power,” she said, and that’s by doing “the same thing I did back in 2004 before Fox, Bill O’Reilly, and their teams of willing executioners bound me to a contract that promises to ruin whatever is left of me if I dare do it again. Tell the truth. Walk free.”
She has quite a tale to tell, too. For example, Mackris shared what she called “the most chilling moment of all of Bill’s multiple counts of harassment” in the phone call that drove her to seek legal protection.
“He was describing what I could expect next. That once we were alone in his hotel room I would get naked and he would get naked. He said I would sit in a chair facing the edge of the bed. He said I would spread my right leg over the right arm of a chair and my left leg over the left arm of the chair. He said I would masturbate facing him as he sat on the edge of the bed, naked and masturbating.
“He said that it wouldn’t be sex because we wouldn’t be touching. He said I needed to suspend the fact that he was my boss. He characterized this ‘little fantasy outlet’ as ‘healthy’ for me and simply ‘blowing off steam.’ He said it would keep me in traction for the next guy I dated. He made it sound as if he would be doing me a favor.
“He always wanted me to join him in masturbating on the phone. I never did. He mocked my lack of participation as ‘hibernation’ and ‘celibacy.’
As The Daily Beast described it, Mackris was forced into “a life mostly of quiet desperation, in which the settlement check has surely provided financial security and a degree of solace,” but which has left her unable to work in the field she loves. O’Reilly, on the other hand, continues to chug along, even after getting ousted from Fox after several other harassment cases were made public.
Mackris was scheduled to tell her story on TV's The View Wednesday. That upset O’Reilly so much, he went to court and got a restraining order. “Her going public with the details of O’Reilly’s alleged conduct has caused ‘significant irreparable harm,’” his lawyers argued. But it’s not like the whole world didn’t already know about his sexually predatory behavior.
O’Reilly also seems to be looking for revenge against The Daily Beast. He accused the publication of having “coached” Mackris “concerning her legal obligations." His counsel also unsuccessfully sought to put the onus of serving the court papers on Mackris onto The Daily Beast. You can almost hear O’Reilly shouting demands that his lawyers sue TDB, them telling him there’s no case, then coming up with that pettiness as a consolation punishment,
O’Reilly has claimed he settled with Mackris because “I had to protect my family” and vowed never to talk about the case again. But $9 million is a lot of money to pay for a nuisance suit. Also, Mackris has said she had tape recordings of O’Reilly’s lewd talk and threats. For the record, O’Reilly’s lawyer claims Mackris publicly stated after the settlement that there had been “no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. O’Reilly.” Mackris denies that.
Unfortunately for O’Reilly, it does not look like Mackris is going to go quiet again any time soon. She told The Daily Beast, “I hope the days of the law allowing the silencing of women are over. I will continue to fight for my voice.”
