World Wrestling Entertainment’s board is investigating a reported $3 million hush-money settlement that chairman Vince McMahon gave a former employee after an alleged affair, according to The Wall Street Journal. The investigation kicked off in April after the board received a tip from a friend of the female employee, who had worked with the franchise as a paralegal and was barred from discussing the alleged affair by the terms of the January settlement. A spokesperson for WWE said McMahon, 76, was cooperating with the investigation and that the alleged affair had been consensual. But the probe, according to the Journal, has uncovered an unclear number of older non-disclosure agreements with other former employees. Some of those agreements reportedly appeared to have been struck after the women accused McMahon or WWE talent executive John Laurinaitis of misconduct. The ex-paralegal’s friend wrote in her tip emails that the woman “was so scared so she quit after Vince McMahon… paid her millions of dollars to shut up.” McMahon’s attorney told the Journal that the ex-paralegal had not made any claims of harassment and that “WWE did not pay any monies” to her “on her departure.”
