The newly single Anthony Scaramucci, as well as Fox News, are denying rumors that he’s dating Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former first lady of San Francisco and Fox News host who, like the Mooch, was at the White House dinner that has become a key plot point in his disastrously dramatic 10-day run as White House communications director.

Journalists tweeting about the guest list for the July 26 dinner, on the same night it took place, so angered Scaramucci that he called one of them, New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza, and launched into an obscenity-laden tirade that was offered up as the main reason that new chief of staff John Kelly asked for his resignation five days later.

But reports from both the Huffington Post and TMZ suggest that salacious reports about Scaramucci’s personal life, including his rumored relationship with Guilfoyle, had also become a distraction and therefore a concern for President Donald Trump, who doesn’t like his subordinates stealing attention from him.

The weekend before Scaramucci’s Monday resignation, news broke that his wife Deidre Ball had filed for divorce when she was nine months pregnant and that he had missed the birth of his son to be with Trump at his controversial speech to the Boy Scouts.

TMZ added the Guilfoyle twist to White House concerns about Scaramucci’s personal drama. TMZ said Scaramucci, 53, resigned two hours after the gossip website started to pester the White House for comments about whether the brash former hedge fund manager was dating the divorced, 48-year-old mother of one.

Scaramucci “strongly” denied having a sexual relationship with Guilfoyle, the Huffington Post said. Guilfoyle’s good friend Roger Stone also explained that Scaramucci and Guilfoyle “are very close friends but nothing more.” Stone joked that Scaramucci is “way too short for Kimberly.”

Scaramucci on Wednesday also denied rumors that his White House exit had anything to do with speculation surrounding him and Guilfoyle, TMZ reported.

A spokesperson for Fox News likewise told TMZ that the two are just friends, having met years ago through her work at Fox. “Not true,” Sacamucci told a reporter for the conservative news website the Daily Caller on Monday. “We are good friends.”

But somehow any publicity linking Scaramucci’s name to Guilfoyle’s so incensed him that he committed a stunning act of job suicide by calling Lizza.

Get more celebrity politics in the Trump era coverage

on Flipboard.

The night of the dinner, Lizza tweeted about some of the people who were socializing with President Trump. He said the dinner attendees included Melania Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannnity and former Fox executive Bill Shine.

Senior White House official tells me that Melania was also at the dinner tonight with Trump, Hannity, Shine, and Scaramucci. — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 27, 2017

At that point, Guilfoyle’s name apparently hadn’t come up as also being a guest. But Scaramucci worried that any mention of her being at the dinner would raise suspicion about the nature of their relationship, the Huffington Post said.

Scaramucci “feared this particular connection would only make matters worse” and he took it as “an attack,” the Huffington Post said. He was also mad that tweets about the guest list had been incomplete, not mentioning the presence of “Fox and Friends” co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, as well as White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and Vice President Mike Pence, who was said to have left before the sit-down dinner.

The following morning, New York magazine Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi confirmed that Guilfoyle was also there.

A source close to Scaramucci tells me that additionally, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Fox News host, was there. https://t.co/vMz3lVNP5K — Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) July 27, 2017

The morning of Scaramucci’s resignation, a source “in Scaramucci’s world” pointed out to TMZ that he and Guilfoyle had been seen together in public a number of times over the last year. Some of the events were public and others were private dinners in and around the NYC area.

Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor famous for prosecuting the dog-mauling death of a San Francisco woman, was married to California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom for four years when he was mayor of San Francisco. The two separated in 2005 when she moved to New York to start a career in television. She’s now one of the co-hosts of the Fox News show “The Five.” She has a 10-year-old son from her marriage to furniture heir Eric Villency, whom she divorced in 2009.

In May, the Bay Area News Group reported that Guilfoyle had been in talks with the Trump administration about possibly replacing Sean Spicer as press secretary. Guilfoyle describes herself as a long-time friend of Trump and his family.

Apparently, the idea of Guilfoyle replacing Spicer didn’t work out because Sarah Huckabee Sanders was named Spicer’s replacement on July 21. Spicer also announced his resignation that day, and Scaramucci was named the new communications director.

The Huffington Post reports that the president was initially amused by Scaramucci’s Lizza rant, though he became concerned about all the negative attention. When Scaramucci offered to resign last weekend, the president said it wasn’t necessary.

Going into Monday morning, Scaramucci was “not out,” but on “thin ice,” TMZ was told. The president had told him “in no uncertain terms to keep “his head low and act professionally.”

TMZ said it first reached out to the White House at around 9:30 a.m. about the Guilfoyle rumors. At some point, retired Marine Gen. Kelly, the new chief of staff who insisted that all White House staff report to him, asked Scaramucci for his resignation, the Huffington Post said.

“It was a very polite conversation,” Scaramucci told the Huffington Post. He said he was also able to say good-bye to Ivanka Trump in person. She had supported her father hiring him. Though he wasn’t able to talk to Trump in person, he said he and Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, the president’s senior advisor, were “all gracious,” he told the Huffington Post.

“The president told me he knows I have his back, but he has to try to tighten the ship,” he said.

Scaramucci told the Huffington Post that his marriage to Deidre Ball had been in trouble for some time. Even though they were separated, he said he intended to be present for the birth of his son, whose due date was August 9. He didn’t think traveling to West Virginia for the Boy Scout Jamboree on July 24 would be an issue, but his son arrived early. He said he wasn’t able to get a flight back to New York in time.

When asked about his next steps following his spectacular flame-out, Scaramucci said he was going “to go dark.”

“Then I will reemerge.” He paused. “As me.”

This story has been updated to include Anthony Scaramucci’s denial on Wednesday that his White House exit had anything to do with speculation surrounding him and Guilfoyle.