Dr. Keith Ablow, Psychiatrist And Former Fox News Fixture, Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
Dr. Keith Ablow, a famous psychiatrist who has appeared regularly on Fox News over the years, has been accused of sexual exploitation of his patients, the Boston Globe reported Thursday.
Ablow, who practices in the Boston area, has been sued by three female patients who say that he “lured them into degrading sexual relationships, including beatings, and conversations about bondage.” One of the women claims that Dr. Ablow forced her to get a tattoo of his initials.
One of the suits was filed last year, with two more filed this week. They also say that Ablow coaxed the women into “humiliating sexual activities,” sometimes during treatment sessions.
A Twitter account with Ablow’s name, but without a verification checkmark, tweeted Thursday, “Categorically, completely deny the allegations lodged against me. I look forward to the court proceedings and will continue to offer excellent care to any patient who needs my help.”
Dr. Ablow, who has written 10 nonfiction books and also several novels, was a Fox News contributor until 2017, which was the year anchor Bill O’Reilly resigned from Fox after it was revealed that the network had paid numerous million-dollar settlements to women who had accused him of misconduct.
It’s unclear whether the accusations against Ablow had anything to do with his departure from Fox, but in 2017, after Fox News founder and accused sexual harasser Roger Ailes passed away, Ablow wrote a column for Fox‘s website thanking Ailes for helping him during a period of depression years earlier.
When he worked at Fox News, Ablow was often the subject of controversies, when he fused his training as a psychiatrist with political commentary. On one occasion, in a Fox News web column, he accused President Barack Obama of refusing to block travel from Ebola-affected countries, because the then-president “may literally believe we should suffer along with less fortunate nations.”
One patient said Keith Ablow occasionally told her, ‘I own you,’ or ‘You are my slave.’” https://t.co/gAA4GzTbf9
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) February 21, 2019
Dr. Ablow, in 2012, wrote in a Fox News column that then-presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s three marriages might make him a strong president, because three women had agreed to marry him, and also that “two of these women felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married.”
In 2011, a doctor who described himself as Dr. Ablow’s mentor wrote a piece in The Atlantic in which he ripped Ablow for telling parents not to allow their children to watch the transgender entertainer Chaz Bono, who was competing that year on Dancing With the Stars.
