Prayer time, a lawsuit or the C-word? Tucker Carlson’s exit remains a mystery

The exact reason behind the rightwing TV host Tucker Carlson's abrupt firing from Fox News remains unclear, days after the star's show was suddenly cancelled.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Carlson was fired after executives discovered vulgar text messages, including one in which he called a top executive the C-word. There were also concerns among Fox management that Carlson was acting as if he was above the network, the Journal reported.

The Los Angeles Times reported the firing was in connection to a lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, Carlson's former senior booking producer, who said she operated in a sexist and misogynistic working environment.

"We will vigorously defend Fox against all of her legal claims which have no merit," Fox said in a statement.

Vanity Fair reported that Rupert Murdoch was disturbed by Carlson's comments at a recent Heritage Foundation event urging people to find 10 minutes for prayer each day. "That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn't like all the spiritual talk," an anonymous source said.

Among those close to Carlson, there is skepticism that his exit was related to his use of vulgar text messages, the Guardian has learned. Instead, the thinking goes, the firing was related to the $787.5m settlement of a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over the broadcast of Donald Trump's lies about voter fraud in the 2020 election.

"An elderly Australian man fired his top anchor with no warning because he was so offended by a dirty word? Stupidest explanation ever. Please," a person close to Carlson said. "A big decision requires a powerful motive. Naughty words in text messages don't qualify."