Fox Sports and Vice President Charlie Dixon are now the subject of two high-profile sexual misconduct lawsuits. The first one was brought by hairstylist Noushin Faraji earlier this month. The second was filed by former host Julie Stewart-Binks.
In the Stewart-Binks lawsuit, she alleges that Dixon sexually assaulted her at a hotel and that her contract was not renewed after she resisted his advances. Stewart-Binks also details how a viral moment with Rob Gronkowski while covering the Super Bowl when she asked him to perform a lap dance was done at the behest of Fox and, although it betrayed her own personal beliefs, she did it because she wanted to impress Dixon.
In the years since leaving Fox, Stewart-Binks has worked for a number of networks including now at SNY, although she has not again reached the national exposure that she once had at FS1.
Front Office Sports published the lawsuit and like in Faraji’s complaint, there are several explosive allegations made throughout the complaint that detail a culture at Fox that allowed such behavior to run amok without any accountability. Stewart-Binks also acknowledged that a conversation with Faraji and the first lawsuit inspired her to step forward and tell her story.
Here are five revelatory allegations in the Julie Stewart-Binks lawsuit against Fox Sports and Charlie Dixon.
1) Charlie Dixon praised Joy Taylor to Julie Stewart-Binks
The alleged relationship between Charlie Dixon and Joy Taylor is featured in the Stewart-Binks complaint. When Stewart-Binks met Dixon at the hotel where the alleged assault took place, Stewart-Binks alleges that he name dropped Taylor as an example of a “good host.”
Dixon concluded by asking what she wanted to do. Ms. Stewart-Binks answered that she liked hosting. Dixon responded: “You’re not a good host. Joy Taylor is a good host.” Ms. StewartBinks was confused, wondering why he would mention someone else, someone she did not even know, when they had met to discuss her segment at the Super Bowl.
Later on in the lawsuit, Stewart-Binks notes that Dixon arrived as Taylor’s plus-one when going out for dinner with other Fox Sports colleagues.
On August 16, 2016, after playing softball, Ms. Stewart-Binks went out to dinner with two of her friends both of whom worked on air at Fox during this time. At the restaurant, one of the friends mentioned that they had also invited Ms. Taylor. Unbeknownst to them all, Ms. Taylor arrived with Dixon as an unexpected plus one. During the dinner, Ms. Taylor and Dixon kept to themselves while Ms. Stewart-Binks remained quiet as a pit grew in her stomach. Towards the end of dinner, at around 11:00 PM, Dixon turned to Ms. Taylor and said, “we need to go work on your on-air performance.” The two then left together. One of the friends, bewildered by the encounter, asked “Okay, what the f*** just happened?” Ms. Stewart-Binks then shared what Dixon had done to her.
Dixon’s alleged affair with Taylor is at the center of the original Fox Sports sexual misconduct lawsuit filed by Faraji.
2) Nick Khan encouraged Julie Stewart-Binks to ditch her existing agent for CAA to get on the same team as Charlie Dixon, Jamie Horowitz
An unexpected appearance is made in the lawsuit by current WWE President Nick Khan. At the time, Khan was one of the most powerful agents in sports media at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Stewart-Binks alleges that Khan directed her to fire her agent because the agent was “not on ‘Jamie and Charlie’s team.'”
That would be Fox Sports executives Charlie Dixon and Jamie Horowitz.
In Fall 2015, after Ms. Stewart-Binks returned from her travels for the network, she sought out to meet with Mr. Horowitz—her new boss. At this meeting, Mr. Horowitz told Ms. StewartBinks that he had not heard of her current agent, and she should hire Creative Artists Agency (“CAA”).
After a meeting was arranged between CAA and Stewart-Binks:
Mr. Khan told her that she needed to fire her current agent as her current agent was not on “Jamie and Charlie’s team.” Knowing how important Mr. Horowitz and Dixon were to her future at Fox, Ms. Stewart-Binks reluctantly fired her agent and hired CAA.
The lawsuit mentions Horowitz’s dismissal from Fox Sports in 2017 in the midst of his own scandal regarding allegations of sexual misconduct and Stewart-Binks’ disbelief that Dixon did not meet a similar fate amidst the investigation. Khan joined WWE in 2020 and Horowitz was hired at WWE in 2021 where he worked until being laid off in 2023. He is now the President and Co-Founder of Omaha Productions with Peyton Manning.
Khan is not accused of any wrongdoing in the lawsuit.
3) Eric Shanks allegedly avoided a call with Julie Stewart-Binks to talk about Charlie Dixon
The fact that Dixon stayed at the network after Horowitz’s dismissal is mentioned as part of the lawsuit. Specifically, Stewart-Binks says that she personally tried to reach out to Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks. However, after agreeing to talk with her, Shanks did not follow through with the conversation and never rescheduled. The insinuation brought forward is that Shanks “dodged her call to give himself plausible deniability.” Later in the lawsuit, Shanks’ involvement (or lack thereof) is alleged as followed, “Mr. Shanks has turned a blind eye to information that would require him to rid of abusers.”
In Fall 2017, after Fox had still not taken any action regarding Dixon, Ms. Stewart-Binks directly reached out to Mr. Shanks, who she admired at the time. She told him, “Shouldn’t be a long call, but an important one.” Mr. Shanks originally agreed to take her call, but then the call was cancelled and never rescheduled. Shortly after the call was cancelled, she spoke with her friend in the media who told her that Mr. Shanks likely dodged her call to give himself plausible deniability to what he knew Dixon had done and might still be doing. Disheartened, she concluded that Fox did not care about her experiences.
Shanks is not a defendant in either the lawsuit brought forward by Stewart-Binks or Noushin Faraji. However, in a similar light to this paragraph, the first lawsuit filed by Faraji says that Shanks and Fox Sports COO Mark Silverman “may become named defendants” in her lawsuit against the company for being alleged to have protect Dixon and his behavior.
4) Julie Stewart-Binks received texts of support after initial lawsuit, contacted Noushin Faraji
To provide corroborating evidence, Stewart-Binks cites text messages from several former colleagues who acknowledge her allegations against Charlie Dixon. She also states that she reached out to Faraji after her own lawsuit against Fox Sports and Dixon and that she may be able to provide more first-hand testimony.
Below are messages from just six of the many individuals who messaged Ms. Stewart-Binks regarding Ms. Faraji’s lawsuit:
a. “Fox sports story. Charlie. Thought of you immediately.”
b. “Hi, saw this and remembered what you told me long ago.”
c. “I mean, we BOTH told Fox he was trouble. I was shocked he didn’t go w Jamie.”
d. “I want to feel happy [but] I just know he’s gonna go get another job like Jamie and Lee Fitting and literally anyone ever accused of sexual harassment.”
e. “How is Charlie still there. He’s literally the biggest dirt bag I’ve ever worked for.”
f. “It wasn’t right what Charlie did … You called me after the ritz.”66. When Ms. Stewart-Binks finally had the opportunity to sit down and read the complaint in its entirety, she recognized herself in the document and further realized it lacked first-hand accounts of the formal complaints made against Dixon. Ms. Stewart-Binks reached out to Ms. Faraji and asked how she could help, Ms. Faraji simply asked that Ms. Stewart-Binks tell her story to the world.
It’s fair to wonder if there will be other lawsuits or accounts that may come forward now that both Stewart-Binks and Faraji have come forward.
5) Charlie Dixon remains defiant
One person we have not heard from in the wake of these accusations is the man at the center of them – Fox Sports VP Charlie Dixon. However, in the Stewart-Binks lawsuit, it is alleged through second-hand testimony from one of Stewart-Binks’ sports media colleagues that he is defiantly remaining in his position at the company.
On January 25, 2025, one of Ms. Stewart-Binks’s colleagues told her that Dixon has been coming to work as usual, stating “I’m not going anywhere.”
Dixon has refused to comment to this point on either lawsuit and Fox Sports has only offered a cursory statement acknowledging that Stewart-Binks’ allegations were from eight years ago and that a third party conducted an investigation and addressed the matter. Fox did not comment on the first lawsuit citing the pending lawsuit.
Dixon has not been placed on any kind of administrative leave and to this point it appears that Fox is treating things business as usual. Joy Taylor has also remained as the host of Speak without any acknowledgment of her being mentioned now in multiple lawsuits against the company.
Next week, Dixon will lead FS1 as the cable network heads to New Orleans for live coverage of the Super Bowl that will be broadcast on Fox. Now that he and Fox Sports are facing not one but two sexual assault lawsuits, it casts an incredible shadow over Fox’s Super Bowl coverage, and likely for a long time to come.
