Jennifer Eckhart Dies: Fired Fox Business Staffer Who Sued Network & Ed Henry For Sexual Harassment Was 36

Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox Business staffer who sued the network and its then-anchor Ed Henry for sexual harassment and retaliation and later hosted a podcast, was found dead September 19 at her home in Hobe Sound, Florida. She was 36.

USA Today reported Monday that Eckhart’s body was found by her mother in the bathtub. The paper also quoted a police officer at the scene as saying Eckhart had “a large laceration to the front of her throat/neck and there was a folding pocketknife next to her right hand.” She was pronounced dead at 11:57 a.m. ET. An official cause of death had yet to be announced.

Eckhart joined Fox Business Network in 2013 and filed a complaint about Henry to FBN in June 2020, alleging “willful sexual misconduct in the workplace years ago” by the married anchor of America’s Newsroom. Henry immediately was suspended and then fired days later “based on investigative findings,” according to a memo to staffer from Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News Media President & Executive Editor Jay Wallace.

In the lawsuit, Eckhart claimed that Henry had sexually harassed and raped her, adding that Fox News knew that Henry was harassing other women at the network, something that should have warned executives that he might do the same to her. She also alleged that her firing was in retaliation for the lawsuit.

Eckhart — who also appeared on Fox News and Fox Nation during her career — was fired from Fox in June 2020, in what the network said was due to tardiness, disclosure of a proprietary graphics package and misappropriation of company resources. Fox News terminated Henry on July 1, 2020, after a law firm’s investigation that found that Eckhart and Henry had engaged in communications between 2014 and 2017, and had the three sexual encounters. That included a September 2015 incident in which Eckhart performed oral sex on Henry in the Fox News office.

In March 2025, A federal judge dismissed Fox News from Eckhart’s sexual assault lawsuit, rejecting the retaliation claim and others. Henry, who now works at Newsmax, settled Eckhart’s lawsuit in June 2025, days before the trial was set to begin.

In August 2021, Eckhart launched Reinvented with Jen Eckhart, a weekly podcast series that featured stories and interviews with public figures, celebrities, CEOs, athletes, business leaders and others. Among her early guests was and Gretchen Carlson, the longtime Fox News anchor who sued Fox News chairman Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.

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