PALM BEACH, Fla. – Former Fox News founder Roger Ailes died Thursday morning in South Florida, where he has lived since stepping down from the network amid sexual harassment allegations. He was 77.
"I am profoundly sad and heartbroken to report that my husband, Roger Ailes, passed away this morning," widow Elizabeth Ailes said in a statement Thursday. "Roger was a loving husband to me, to his son Zachary, and a loyal friend to many. He was also a patriot, profoundly grateful to live in a country that gave him so much opportunity to work hard, to rise -- and to give back."
According to a Palm Beach police report, Ailes was injured eight days earlier in a fall at his Ocean Lane home.
A caller contacted 911 dispatchers on May 10, saying Ailes had fallen in his bathroom, hit his head and was bleeding profusely. He was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach and put into a medically induced coma.
The Palm Beach County medical examiner said hemophilia contributed to Ailes' death. His manner of death was ruled accidental.
Ailes resigned in July 2016 after allegations that he sexually harassed women employed by the network.
He started Fox News almost from scratch in 1996 and built it into not just a cable news ratings leader, but a profound influence on the right wing of American politics.
Ailes was arguably the most powerful man in media when he suddenly lost his job last summer. Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox anchor, sued him for sexual harassment, and other women came forward to support her claims.
A former Republican operative to candidates including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Ailes later turned his media savvy to running TV networks.
In early 1996, he accepted a challenge from media titan Rupert Murdoch to build a news network from scratch to compete with CNN.
That October, Ailes flipped the switch on Fox News. It became the audience leader in cable news. It also emerged as a powerful force on the political scene, while the feisty, hard-charging Ailes swatted off criticism that the network he branded as "Fair and Balanced" had a conservative tilt.
