The Daily Mail got hold of Roger Ailes’ will and found that despite the fact that Ailes has only one known son, the will makes provisions for multiple children.
From the Daily Mail article about Ailes’ will:
Curiously although Zachary is widely assumed to be sole heir and only child to Ailes, the language of the document does briefly allude to the possibility of other offspring.
'I give and bequeath such property in equal shares to those of my children who survive me, or all to the survivor if only one of them survives me,' it reads.
Now, this could be boilerplate language that Ailes’ attorney uses for all wills and Ailes either didn't notice the inapt language or else didn't take issue with it. But this will was reportedly written last year, when Ailes was 76 and his wife was 54 or 55 and they were not likely to have more children. I’d think that Ailes would have clarified the wording to make it clear he had only one child if for no other reason than to protect his wealthy survivors from having to deal with scammers.
But.. if he knew there could be an illegitimate child (or more!), this could have been a discrete way to provide for him, her or them without having the nasty consequences of informing his wife about the situation while he was still alive.
There's another interesting tidbit in the will.
According to the Daily Mail, Ailes also bequeathed $30,000 to his longtime assistant, Judy Laterza who left Fox News shortly before he was ousted:
According to author and frequent Ailes critic Gabriel Sherman, the 58-year-old assistant acted as 'recruiter' for her predatory boss, lining up pretty females for private meetings in his office.
Laterza even entered fake names into the visitors' ledger to cover his tracks, Sherman alleged in a September 2016 article in New York Magazine.
Laterza never responded to his claims.
Roger Ailes caricature by DonkeyHotey via Creative Commons license.