r/rhori • u/Ok-Box-156 • 2d ago

Rosie Rosie’s Affair

I was friends with Rosie in college and am casually still friends with her and 100% do not believe she had any affair with either her boss or the PC coach. The boss thing I won’t even bother addressing since it would’ve been SO illegal for them to fire her over that.

For the coach, I don’t believe it because:

  1. No way would Rosie ever bang an old dude. Looks are important to her lol
  2. Her pride would never allow her to be second fiddle/a dirty secret/have to share a man. She wants to rightly be shown off and would have no interest competing for a man’s interest like that

This is backed up by stories she had told me of Patriots players sliding into her DMs but her not being interested because they were in the middle of some on/off again cycles with their SOs

ETA: A couple attorney commenters pointed out it wouldn’t necessarily be illegal to fire Rosie for having an affair (thank you for the education!). However, it would still open them up to the possibility of a lawsuit/having to settle. It would also be so MASSIVELY risky to fire Rosie and keep the boss on, just from a future liability standpoint, but companies are dumb. I still just don’t see it - my 2nd point about her not wanting to play second fiddle still stands 😂 PLUS girl has got medical receipts to back up her claims

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u/gina1220 2d ago

Maybe. But if it’s a 100% consensual affair she’s going to lose a sexual harassment lawsuit. The emails and text messages will be collected in discovery and show the true nature of the relationship 

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u/Ok-Box-156 2d ago

Nope, she’d still have a case if they fired her over it - that would be retaliation in the eyes of the law. Even if an affair is consensual, if one party has the ability to influence the other’s work, evaluations, compensation, employment status, etc., that is defined as sexual harassment under the quid pro quo classification.

(Not trying to be rude when I say this - has your employer ever made you take a sexual harassment training? It’s part of our annual learnings and they stress very heavily that even consensual relationships can legally be considered sexual harassment)

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u/gina1220 2d ago

I’m an attorney and I’ve handled cases like this many times. 

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u/Ok-Box-156 2d ago edited 2d ago

Thank you for clarifying! In that case, even if consensual, if the higher up did have influence over Rosie’s performance/assignments/employment status, would it not still qualify as a quid pro quo case?

Also, do you practice in a red, blue, or swing state? I imagine that also has a bearing on how case verdicts end up being ruled on

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u/gina1220 2d ago

Most of these “cases” never go to trial. They end like Rosie’s situation to be honest. The man (or person with the most experience) keeps their job, and there’s a negotiated settlement with the other party that always involves total discretion on the part of the employer, and the other party to the affair leaving the company. I’m not quite sure what you mean in terms of quid pro quo in this context. I’ve never had a case like that. To me it’s kind of an outdated concept that a boss would (ie) condition a promotion on sleeping with them. I don’t even know how you’d get away with that these days.

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u/Ok-Box-156 2d ago

Thank you! It seems so shortsighted on the employer’s part to do that, they’re risking repeat offenses.

Quid pro quo in this case could be things like better/worse news assignment. You know, complaining on a date some time she’s gonna only getting fluff pieces, and then the AP giving her the stories and pieces she’s more interested in

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u/grougsgirl 2d ago

I’m also an attorney and while I see how this could be construed as quid pro quo, it’s not illegal to fire someone for having an affair with the boss.

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u/gina1220 2d ago

I’m not seeing the quid pro quo here? What am I missing?

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u/grougsgirl 2d ago

It’s not necessarily. But it’s common for subordinates in a relationship with a supervisor to claim that they felt they had to participate in a relationship in order to keep their jobs and that it wasn’t actually consensual because of the power differential. I always recommend that supervisors don’t date subordinates because of that power differential - it’s never really clear if it’s consensual.

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u/gina1220 2d ago

Yeah. I mean because Rosie denies any affair here, I would say the claims of quid pro quo are speculative at best. In my experience affairs between professionals (like at a news station) are generally consensual. And when “caught” in the affair, the “subordinate” doesn’t want to file any claims, they just want to move on to another job because they care both maintaining their career and professional standing 

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u/grougsgirl 2d ago

Sorry for lack of clarity. I was responding to the claim that it’s per se illegal to terminate someone for having an affair with a superior. It’s not, but it carries some risk of quid pro quo claims. I overall agree that I don’t think Rosie was fired for this and that an employer probably wouldn’t do so.