Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) has revealed new details of the allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment against longtime host Garrison Keillor, nearly two months after his abrupt firing.
MPR’s CEO Tim McTaggart told the radio network that he fired Keillor in November after he received “dozens” of complaints of inappropriate behavior toward female co-workers during his long-running show “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Keillor had said he was let go after an incident in which he put his hand “on a woman’s bare back,” but MPR says it found a pattern of multiple incidents of misconduct spanning decades.
One former subordinate who had a romantic relationship with Keillor allegedly received a check for $16,000 from his production company in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement to keep her from sharing details of his personal life or businesses, but never cashed in or accepted the offer.
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Another woman who was fired by MPR after working there for three years sued the network for what she called a “pattern and practice of abusive conduct” she experienced from Keillor.
In 2012, MPR said, Keillor publicly posted a dirty limerick about a young woman who worked with him and her effect on him.
“When we reached a point that from all sources we had sufficient confidence in facts that really required us to act, we took the action we did,” McTaggard said. “It was the right thing to do. It was the necessary thing to do, and we stand by it.”