Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox News producer who sued one of the network’s former anchors and accused him of rape, has died by suicide at her Florida home, six years after the alleged assault.
Eckhart, 36, was found at her home in Hobe Sound on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Our News Outlet on Monday.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the former producer, who later became a podcaster, took her own life.
According to an incident report obtained by the outlet, Eckhart’s mother discovered her body. Sources said she went to the home Monday morning and found her daughter in the bathtub of the main bedroom, with a knife nearby.
Officers arrived at the property, and Eckhart was pronounced dead at 11:57 a.m., according to the report.
No further details were immediately released. TMZ was the first outlet to report Eckhart’s death.
In 2020, Eckhart filed a lawsuit accusing former Fox anchor Ed Henry of rape. The case was later settled, while an external investigation launched by Fox News resulted in Henry’s dismissal.
Eckhart alleged that Henry restrained and raped her during an encounter at a Manhattan hotel in 2017. The lawsuit was settled in June 2025, one day before the case was scheduled to go to trial after five years of litigation.
Former Fox News producer Jennifer Eckhart has died by suicide, TMZ reported on Monday. The 36-year-old was found dead at her Florida home on Saturday.
Eckhart accused former Fox anchor Ed Henry of rape in a 2020 lawsuit. The case was settled last year.
Henry, 55, is now the head anchor at Newsmax. He was married to NPR editor Shirley Hung, though the pair had separated, when Eckhart made the allegations. They divorced in 2019.
Henry later dated Alana Stewart, Rod Stewart’s former wife. He has consistently maintained that his interactions with Eckhart were consensual.
Eckhart launched a podcast in 2021, describing it as her “second act” in an August 2021 interview with Variety. The show featured conversations with a broad range of guests about the human condition.
“Reinventing yourself, whether personally or professionally, is something so many of us can relate to,” she said. The podcast was titled REINVENTED with Jen Eckhart.
“My hope is that this show will inspire anyone who wants to reinvent themselves to take that first step… to let every person out there know it is never too late to reinvent your life,” she told the trade publication.
The last recorded episode was uploaded in March, weeks after a federal appeals court rejected a follow-up filing by Eckhart that targeted Fox News rather than Henry.
The filing echoed a portion of Eckhart’s original lawsuit that had been dismissed. It alleged that Fox News knew about Henry’s conduct and failed to discipline him appropriately or protect her.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit, however, ruled against Eckhart, finding that she had not done enough to establish that “Fox knew of Henry’s conduct towards her.”
Eckhart hosted a podcast after leaving Fox News, although its most recent episode was released in March.
Henry now serves as Newsmax’s head anchor. He is pictured with his then-wife, Shirley Hung, in 2014. The couple separated in 2016 before divorcing in 2024.
Eckhart was also not able to prove that execs only took the ‘appropriate corrective action’ against Henry after her suit was filed in June 2020, to get ahead of the claims.
The appeal unsuccessfully sought to hold the network accountable for violating a New York City civil rights law that bars employees from being harassed, discriminated against, and retaliated upon by their employers.
The circumstances surrounding the earlier settlement, meanwhile, remain unknown.
Eckhart accused Henry of preforming ‘sadistic acts on her without her consent that left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists’ in the original suit.
She also attached screenshots of texts from the then-America’s Newsroom anchor, where he called her ‘my little whore’ and demanded ‘more anal’ sex, according to the complaint.
The suit also accused Henry of sex trafficking, sexual harassment, gender discrimination and subjecting her to a hostile work environment. Henry was fired the day after it was filed, despite it never getting to court.
Eckhart was born and raised in Miami, and previously worked as an ESPN Radio correspondent and anchor for WUFT-TV in Gainesville. She most recentl worked as a producer for Fox Business while also appearing on Fox News and Fox Nation
As the suit made its way through the the federal court system for five year, Eckhart worked on her podcast. She expressed hope to Variety that the median would allow her more freedom than her cable news career.
‘I did not have an immediate desire to run back into the arms of corporate media… I’m not beholden to any investor or network,’ she said.
Eckhart was born and raised in Miami, and previously worked as an ESPN Radio correspondent and anchor for WUFT-TV, a local PBS affiliate in Gainesville.
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or actions, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 988.
