A Former Fox Business Producer Accused an Anchor of Sexual Assault and Now She’s Dead at Thirty Six
Jennifer Eckhart accused Fox News anchor Ed Henry of sexual assault in a 2020 complaint that made national headlines.
She was found dead at her Martin County, Florida home on September 18, 2026, according to the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
A sheriff's office spokesperson says she appeared to have died by suicide.
She Became a Face of Fox News's Reckoning With Ed Henry
Eckhart worked as an associate producer at Fox Business before she came forward in 2020 accusing then-Fox News anchor Ed Henry of sexually assaulting her at the network.
Fox News fired Henry that same year, in July 2020, following an internal investigation into the misconduct complaint.
Eckhart's lawsuit went well beyond a single incident.
It alleged a pattern of harassment stretching back years, claimed Henry tied career advancement to sexual favors, and argued his conduct violated federal sex trafficking law.
In March 2025, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams dismissed Fox News itself from the case.
The judge ruled the network could not have known about Henry's alleged misconduct until after Eckhart had already left the company, and credited Fox's records showing she was terminated for chronic tardiness rather than retaliation.
Fox News said in a statement that "discovery in this matter confirmed that Fox News was not aware of their relationship or of Ms. Eckhart's allegations until after she left the company."
Judge Abrams let the core claims against Henry himself move toward trial, including allegations of sexual assault, rape, and years of harassment, while dismissing a separate revenge-porn claim.
A trial had been scheduled for May 12, 2025.
Eckhart said at the time that she planned to appeal the dismissal of Fox News from the case: "This fight is bigger than me. It is about changing a corporate culture that continues to enable abuse."
Her case was not the network's first reckoning of this kind.
Fox News ousted its chairman, Roger Ailes, in 2016 amid a wave of sexual harassment allegations, and settled harassment and defamation claims tied to former star Bill O'Reilly the following year.
Eckhart's suit argued that same pattern had not actually ended, just moved to a new set of names.
More recently, Eckhart had moved into a second act as a podcast host.
Her show, "REINVENTED," featured guests from business, sports, and entertainment talking about setbacks they had overcome on the way to rebuilding their careers.
Her most recent episode, posted in March, featured former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
Eckhart was thirty six years old.
What the Sheriff's Office Has Said
Martin County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Christine Christofek said in a statement that Eckhart appeared to have died by suicide.
She was found at her Martin County home on September 18, 2026.
The sheriff's office has not released additional details about the circumstances.
Eckhart's family has not issued a public statement.
A Difficult Story to Tell Well
Eckhart's lawsuit against Ed Henry never reached the trial she was fighting for, and now that fight ends without her able to see it through.
Whatever anyone thought of the legal case itself, she was a person who told the world something painful had happened to her, in public, at real professional and personal cost, and who kept pursuing it through years of motions, an appeal, and a network's denial that it bore any responsibility.
Her more recent months were not simple.
She was arrested in Palm Beach County in July 2025 on a battery charge stemming from an altercation with her boyfriend, and released without having to post bail.
That arrest does not erase the years she spent trying to hold a former colleague and a powerful employer accountable, and it does not need to be weighed against it as though only one can be true.
Both are part of the same life, and both belong in an honest account of how it ended.
If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text, and the Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting 741741, any hour, anywhere in the United States.
Sources:
- Ariel Zilber, "Former Fox Business producer Jennifer Eckhart, 36, found dead in Florida home," New York Post, September 21, 2026.
- "Fox News dismissed from sexual assault lawsuit against Ed Henry," NPR, March 13, 2025.
- "Fox News Fires Ed Henry After Fox News Investigation Into Alleged Sexual Misconduct," Variety, July 2020.
- Arrest affidavit cited by the Daily Mail, referenced in New York Post, September 21, 2026.
