According to a report published Friday, Vince McMahon paid out millions of dollars in hush money to a former female wrestler with whom he had a coercive sexual relationship and who was not brought back to the company after she resisted further sexual advances from the executive.
According to the Journal report, McMahon paid $7.5 million to the former wrestler, who claimed that McMahon coerced her into giving him oral sex, demoted her and then decided not to renew her contract after she resisted further sexual encounters with him. A non-disclosure agreement was signed by the wrestler and her lawyer.
Over the last 16 years, a total of $12 million has been paid to four women to keep quiet about McMahon's sexual misdeeds.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the board of the World Wrestling Entertainment was looking into a secret $3 millionPayout from McMahon to a former employee. McMahon would be stepping away from his duties as chairman and CEO in order to make room for his daughter, who would remain as head of creative. According to sources at the time, McMahon was still in charge of the company along with Nick Khan.
The Journal reported Friday that McMahon paid $7.5 million for her silence. A $1 million non-disclosure settlement was reached in 2008 after McMahon sexually harassed a woman on the job and sent nude pictures of himself to her. A former manager of the company was paid $1 million to keep quiet about McMahon having a sexual relationship with her.
According to the Journal, the World Wrestling Entertainment board is investigating allegations of a sexual relationship between an executive and a former paralegal. An investigation is underway for a non-disclosure agreement with an employee who claimed to have been sexually harassed. According to reports, Laurinaitis is on leave.
A person from the company did not return a request. A company spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that McMahon's relationship with the paralegal was consensual and that the company is taking the allegations seriously.
The law firm Simpson Thacher </
Two weeks after the first Wall Street Journal report, New York Magazine ran a story with interviews with Rita Chatterton and Leonard Inzitari, who claimed McMahon raped them. This is the first time that Chatterton's claims have been substantiated by a second source.
The author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, Abraham Riesman, was told by Inzitari why he was on the bandwagon. There are worse things than that.
McMahon has been in the public eye more than usual. Hours after it was announced that McMahon would be stepping away from his CEO and chairman duties, McMahon appeared on the "Smack Down" program. He appeared on the show three days later. McMahon, the most influential man in pro-wrestling, was in attendance cageside at the UFC in Las Vegas last Saturday.
McMahon was at the UFC event with her husband, fellow executive and retired wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque, and other people.
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