Roger Ailes, the former chief of Fox News and a Hudson Valley resident, died Thursday at the age of 77 according to his wife, Elizabeth Ailes in an announcement on Fox News.
While his cause of death has yet to be officially confirmed, TMZ currently reports Ailes, who lived in Garrison, fell and hit his head eight days ago. According to TMZ, and a tweet from New York Magazine’s national affairs editor Gabriel Sherman, Ailes fell into a coma on Wednesday and died from complications.
“I am profoundly sad and heartbroken to report that my husband, Roger Ailes, passed away this morning,” Elizabeth Ailes wrote in the statement. “Roger was a loving husband to me, to his son Zachary, and a loyal friend to many.”
Last July, Ailes was forced to leave Fox News, which he founded in 1996, after allegations of sexual harassment made by former anchor Gretchen Carlson.
His family was the former owners of the Putnam County Courier and the Putnam County News & Recorder newspapers, before Elizabeth Ailes sold them in December 2016.