Bill O’Reilly once referred to her as “hot chocolate,” says Perquita Burgess, one of the women who have accused O’Reilly of sexual harassment. She spoke out about the now-former Fox News host on The View on Thursday.
Burgess, who was working as a temp at Fox at the time, said it only took O’Reilly about two weeks to start harassing her.
“He always walked past my desk and he made, like, a grunting noise,” Burgess said. “As time went on, I noticed … if no one was around, he would make that noise.”
Burgess then went on to talk about an incident in an elevator.
“He let me off first, as gentlemen usually do,” she said, “and I walked in front of him, and as I was leaving the elevator, he said, ‘Looking good there, girl.’”
Burgess said that the harassment went on and got even more aggressive, but she didn’t report it to Fox because she didn’t want to jeopardize her job at the network or with her temp agency.
As to why she’s speaking out now, years later, she says it’s because she got tired of hearing the stories from women and reliving the experience.
“I was tired of reliving the trauma every time I saw a woman speak out,” Burgess said.
“I did not want to,” she added. “I was very afraid because I don’t want the skeptics … when people question it, it pisses you off.”