Fox, Shannon Sharpe allegedly settled with female PA over choking incident, per report (2025)

ESPNFoxBy Sean Keeley on 04/24/202504/24/2025

Shannon Sharpe announced Thursday that he would temporarily leave ESPN while dealing with a lawsuit in which he was accused of sexual assault and rape.

Also Thursday, Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel reported on a previously unreported incident that took place while Sharpe worked at FS1.

“Before Sharpe’s time at ESPN, when he was the co-host of FS1’sUndisputed,he was accused of choking a female production assistant in the workplace,two sources with knowledge of the incident tellFront Office Sports,” wrote Glasspiegel.

The specific timing of the incident was unknown. Sharpe was the co-host of Undisputed alongside Skip Bayless from 2016 to 2023. He began contributing to ESPN soon after leaving FS1.

One source told FOS that the settlement was for “several hundred thousand dollars.” No lawsuit was filed over the alleged incident.

A rep for Sharpe denied that the incident took place, telling FOS, “There was no incident of choking involving Shannon on the FS1 set. On one occasion, he and a few colleagues were involved in some light physical interaction in a playful context. Fox Sports later chose to resolve the matter privately. For further details, we recommend contacting Fox directly.”

A Fox Sports spokesperson declined to comment before FOS received the statement from Sharpe’s representative and could not be reached for a follow-up request.

This alleged incident comes to light as Sharpe is dealing with a lawsuit filed Sunday by a woman identified as “Jane Doe” accusing him of sexual assault and rape. Sharpe has since named the woman in response to the lawsuit, denied all allegations, and claimed this is a “shakedown.” According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff is seeking $50 million in damages. Sharpe’s lawyer admitted that his client had offered at least $10 million to settle the suit before it was filed, but that was not an admission of guilt.

While ESPN did not initially officially release a statement beyond Chairman Jimmy Pitaro’s words shared by Stephen A. Smith on his personal podcast, Sharpe announced on Thursday that he would “step aside temporarily from my ESPN duties” and return “at the start of the NFL preseason.” ESPNquickly followed that with a statement saying, “This is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon’s decision to step away.” They, however, did not comment on Sharpe’s plans to return eventually.

Sharpe was also previously accused of sexual assault in 2010 and briefly stepped away from his role with CBS Sports. A restraining order was quickly redrawn, and he returned to “The NFL Today.” Sharpe denied those allegations as well.