A spokesman for 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, declined to comment.

Ms. Bernstein, in her lawsuit, said that she had reached a settlement with Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly in July 2002 after she made repeated complaints about his behavior to the network’s human resources department and other executives. The agreement included a confidentiality clause, which barred both sides from talking about the dispute, as well as a nondisparagement clause.

The New York Times reported on Ms. Bernstein’s settlement in April as part of an investigation that exposed how the network had stood by Mr. O’Reilly as he faced a series of harassment allegations. The Times reported that the network was aware of complaints involving Mr. O’Reilly since at least 2002, when, current and former employees who witnessed the incident said, he stormed into the newsroom and screamed at Ms. Bernstein. Ms. Bernstein soon left the network.

The exact amount of Ms. Bernstein’s settlement was not known, but it was far less than the five other publicly known settlements involving Mr. O’Reilly. The six settlements have totaled about $45 million, including one for $32 million.

In her suit, Ms. Bernstein said she was not the source of the information printed in the Times article.

Ms. Bernstein claims that statements made by Mr. O’Reilly and Fox News in response to the article disparaged and defamed her and violated the confidentiality clause of the settlement, which required that if asked about the dispute, the parties could respond by stating, “The matter has been resolved (or settled).”

“O’Reilly portrayed himself as a ‘target’ and claimed that complaints against him are extortionate,” Ms. Bernstein’s lawsuit said. “This is false. In fact, he is a serial abuser and Ms. Bernstein’s complaints about him were far from extortionate.”

Ms. Bernstein said Fox News had made a “deliberately misleading” statement by stating that no current or former Fox News employee ever used a hotline to report complaints about Mr. O’Reilly. She said that there was no hotline at Fox News during her employment and that she had repeatedly complained to the human resources department at Fox News, as well as other executives, about Mr. O’Reilly’s behavior.